Suffocated and strangled
Russia’s protest movement: a response to Ilya Kalinin
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Ilya Kalinin is investigating the reasons for the failure of the protest movement in Russia in the winter of 2011/2012. He lays the blame mainly on the “ringleaders” of the protests, claiming that their main motivation was to attract attention to themselves, and that in their arrogance, they looked down on ordinary people. This made it easy for the regime to present itself as the representative and protector of these same people. This analysis fails to acknowledge the fact that the movement didn’t have any leaders at all, and that after the destruction by the Kremlin of the political arena, the appointment of such leaders would not have been possible. The protests were brought to an end by the repressions initiated by the regime from May 2012 onwards.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2019, pp. 47–51)