The Levada Center (an independent Russian polling organization) has published some interesting survey results.
They concern protest actions and whether citizens can use them to get their problems resolved.
The media are reporting the poll results under headlines like, “Citizens do not believe that protest actions can achieve anything.”
Although, as we can see, these data are really more about the fact that citizens never believed in protests in the first place, and now have finally lost faith in everything else as well.
Faith in the judicial system, appeals to officials, participation in elections—all of it is declining.
At the same time, the question specifically about protest actions, while showing a dramatic drop in faith in them since 2012 (for obvious reasons), still finds that 20% believe they can be used to influence the authorities.
And that 20% is absolutely right. Whatever one thinks of the consequences of the “Bolotnaya movement” (the 2011–2012 anti-government protest movement in Moscow), the fact is that over the past 17 years, only street protests have produced any results at all—from Pikalyovo (a Russian company town where protests prompted federal intervention) and the monetization of benefits (the replacement of in-kind Soviet-era social benefits with cash payments) to Kondopoga (a town in Karelia associated with unrest that drew a strong official response).
The authorities generally do nothing good, but if there are people in the streets, they at least start to stir. Otherwise, there is zero reaction.
For the Kremlin, for a governor, for a mayor, this is the main indicator. If people did not come out into the streets, then it can be ignored.
With that in mind, a reminder: on Sunday, February 26, a march will take place on the anniversary of Boris Nemtsov’s murder.
Participants will gather from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Strastnoy Boulevard near the Tverskaya, Pushkinskaya, and Chekhovskaya metro stations.
Come—it matters. Perhaps more than anything else.