The Essence of Putin
Few people, least of all Vladimir Putin, who plans to return to Russia’s presidency on March 4, could have imagined last December the massive anti-government protests gripping the country today. Unfortunately, given the corrupt, clientilist state that Putin has built, this third term in office will offer no hope of meaningful reform.
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MOSCOW – Few people, least of all Vladimir Putin, who plans to return to Russia’s presidency on March 4, could have imagined last December that Russians would, for the first time in 20 years, wake up and rally in their tens of thousands against the government. Unlike the Arab Spring rebellions, the driving force behind the ongoing protests is not Russia’s poor and disadvantaged, but rather the country’s rising urban middle class. That is an important difference, for, historically, successful democratic transitions have almost always required a politically mobilized middle class.