The Young Generation Behind Russia’s Protests
With her own tawdry reality-TV show, and a taste for rich men and wild parties, Kseniya Sobchak was the poster girl for the new Vladimir Putin generation. A teenager when her father, St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, became a hero to millions thanks to his idealistic politics at the twilight of the Soviet Union, Ms. Sobchak epitomized the hedonistic devotion to glamour and glitz of the oil-stoked “fat 2000s” in Russia.
Her generation’s political views—if they had any at all—were as hard-edged and cynical as the former KGB agent who ran the country.
But something changed this fall. Ms. Sobchak and her fellow 25- to 40-year-olds suddenly looked at their future and didn’t like what they saw. First, Mr. Putin’s announcement in September that he was coming back as president—for six or possibly 12 years, thanks to constitutional changes made by his protege, Dmitry Medvedev—showed a flagrant disregard for public input.
This month’s parliamentary elections proved an even ruder shock. Many members of the young, urban middle class had decided to vote or even signed up as volunteer election observers. They were stunned by the brazen rigging they witnessed, as well as by the total unwillingness of authorities to respond to their complaints. Those who didn’t work at the polling places heard from their friends or watched video reports on Facebook or Twitter.
Suddenly, Ms. Sobchak and her apolitical generation have become a political force, helping to fill the ranks of the biggest antigovernment demonstrations in over a decade. “I call it the mink revolution,” she says.
Another society glamour girl, Bozhena Rynska, became a heroine of the movement when she was detained by riot police at a demonstration after the vote and called out to the cameramen, “I’m Bozhena, film this!” Her blog, once full of obscenity-laced tirades against her high-society rivals, is now a must-read for its anti-Kremlin manifestoes.