Russia on the Move
Putin’s Old Order and the New Decembrists
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
To the surprise of many observers, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Russia against the fraud in the Duma elections. Since then, the “Putin system” has been under pressure. This was not entirely unpredictable. The protest feeds on the dissatisfaction of the growing middle class with Russia’s political and economic stagnation, the lack of modernisation, as well as the cynicism of those in power, the climax of which was the announcement that Dmitrii Medvedev and Vladimir Putin would swap jobs. The techniques of “managed democracy” are no longer having the desired effect. But the new democratic movement needs to show persistence.
(Osteuropa 1/2012, pp. 41–56)