RE: Election4 Apr 2023 10:28
Why Russians are not protesting against the war
Since the Ukraine war began, the West has asked why Russians aren’t marching on the streets. The answer is simple. The Kremlin’s war on Ukraine, and especially the mobilisation announced in September, are a real shock for Russian society.
Even if you factor in pro-government opinion surveys, there are millions of people in Russia who are dissatisfied with what is happening. And the people who most disagree with the Russian government are young people. According to the most conservative estimates, the number of under-25s against the war is equivalent to the number of people of all ages who support it.
But why aren’t these people out on the streets of Russian cities? This is one of the West’s most asked questions since the invasion of Ukraine in February. The simplest answer is this: because Russians support the war and Russian president Vladimir Putin. It’s an argument used frequently by Western politicians, and one that is used to justify closing international borders to Russian citizens. ‘Fight inside your own country’ is a familiar slogan. Eastern European politicians and citizens make this point particularly often. Which is understandable: they feel the pain of Ukraine more closely, remember life under Soviet occupation and fear a Russian invasion themselves. In fact, to understand the absence of active protests in Russia, an analogy may help. Soviet-style repression and rigged elections. In terms of ideology and repression, the Putin regime is similar to the Soviet regime and even tries to use elements of the Stalinist Soviet Union. Since the war began, laws have been adopted in Russia that can result in up to ten years in prison for soldiers surrendering to Ukraine’s armed forces. If you spread ‘fake news’ – that is, any information about the war that contradicts the official line – you face up to 15 years in prison. In Russia, for even using the word ‘war’ (rather than the officially sanctioned ‘special operation’) you can face punishment. Mass political protests were never a regular feature in the Soviet Union. While they certainly took place, the Soviet authorities severely suppressed them.
During the 20 years of his rule, Putin has built a repressive apparatus that is almost as effective as that of the Soviet Union. (The media outlet where I'm chief editor, Mediazona, covers it in detail.) Indeed, it was in the late 1970s that Putin began to work for Soviet state security, and this time period of the Soviet enterprise – from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s – and the regime in East Germany, is probably a role model for the current Russian president.
But as well as the wholesale suppression of dissent, the blocking of independent media and the persecution of journalists, there is another detail that makes Russian society similar to the Soviet one. The Russian state has completely removed citizens from political life.
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