Russia witnessed the largest anti-government protests in
more than five years on March 26, 2017. At the urging of Aleksei Navalny, “tens
of thousands of Russians—many of them in their teens and 20s—poured into the
streets in scores of cities . . . to protest endemic corruption among the
governing elite.”[1]
The police responded by beating protesters—a barbaric and psychologically
pathological response to peaceful protest—and arresting more than a thousand. As
the protests were not directed against Putin, but, rather, corruption, the
Kremlin should have been a cheerleader rather than antagonist to the protests.
The full essay is at "Young Russians Protest."
Aleksei A. Navalny at a court in Moscow on Monday. He told reporters that
he was “amazed” by the number of cities and by how many people had taken part
in demonstrations. Source: Denis Tyrin/Associated Press
1. Neil MacFarquhar and Ivan Nechepurenko, “Aleksei
Navalny, Russian Opposition Leader, Receives 15-Day Sentence,” The New York Times, March 27, 2017.
