Russians Look Ahead to Mass Protest, Presidential Election
Is Russia’s middle class on the march? People are angry, and are speaking out for clean elections and democracy.
Two days after Russia’s largest democracy demonstration in a generation, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev responded with a few lines in Facebook.
He wrote, “I agree neither with the slogans, nor the statements voiced at the protests.”
Within minutes, readers demanded, which slogans? Did he object to the central one, “Clean elections?”
Within 24 hours, more than 12,000 Russians put their names on the line with such comments as, “Shame” and “Pathetic.”
Suddenly, middle class Russians are saying they are fed up, in public.
Mikhail Morozov, a sales manager, is one of them. He said last week’s voting was a waste of time because the Kremlin had decided the results in advance.
Last weekend, protests were held in 95 cities across Russia.
Evgeniya Chesnikova, a 30-year-old chess teacher, came to Moscow’s protest with flowers, symbolizing her hope the protest movement will remain peaceful. “I came here today because this autocratic regime of Putin, it can’t stay anymore. It’s all of criminals and corruption,” he said.