The EconomistSeptember 7th 2019 311E
gor zhukov, a student in Moscow, pub-
lished a video blog on August 1st in
which he described how the siloviki (mem-
bers of Russia’s security services) had
seized power in Russia, using protests over
local elections in Moscow as an excuse.
“Russia will inevitably be free,” he said,
“but we may not live to see it if we let fear
win, because when fear wins, silence co-
mes...a silence that will be disturbed by the
screeching brakes of a black police wagon
and the deafening ring of a doorbell that di-
vides life into before and after.”
Coming from a 21-year-old student, in
prettified and bustling Moscow, with its
hipster cafés and cycle lanes, the associa-
tions with the darkest days of the Soviet
1930s seemed like hyperbole. Eight hours
later, in the middle of the night, the securi-
ty services rang Mr Zhukov’s doorbell. At
2.05am, he sent a text message to a friend:
“They’ve come for me.” A few hours later,
he was led away and charged with involve-
ment in “mass disturbances” during the
summer protests. The charge was fabricat-
ed. Not only were the protests peaceful but
Mr Zhukov was misidentified in a videoused by the police. The only acts of violence
during the protests were committed by the
police and the security services.
But the arrest of Mr Zhukov, and of
many of his fellow activists, has been met
with anything but silence. Students and ac-
ademics have signed open letters and pick-
eted police headquarters. Bloggers and rap-
pers came to support him in court. And at
the next big protest, on August 10th, some
50,000 people came out onto the streets.
Stars’ Secrets, a tabloid about the life of ce-
lebrities, published a two-page spread
about police violence.
On September 3rd, after a month in de-
tention, Mr Zhukov was released and
placed under house arrest, the initial
charge of “mass disturbances” replaced bya somewhat softer one of “extremism”. Five
other detainees, also charged with “mass
disturbances”, were released without
charge. At the same time, though, four oth-
er men who had tried to resist police vio-
lence during the summer protests were
sentenced to two and three years in prison.
The Moscow protests, the largest since
2012, have demonstrated that Vladimir Pu-
tin is running out of non-violent means of
sustaining himself in power. However,
they also showed that ordinary Russians
are no longer prepared to put up with being
terrorised—and this shift in the public
mood makes it harder for the Kremlin to
terrorise them. The current crisis was trig-
gered by the government’s fear of losing in
local elections due on September 8th
across the country, with the vote for Mos-
cow’s city council especially significant.
The council has little actual authority, but
symbols carry enormous political weight
in Russia. To many Russians, the fight for
the Moscow council has turned into a
proxy battle for the Kremlin itself.
This was partly the doing of Alexei Na-
valny, Russia’s most prominent opposition
leader, who urged his supporters to vote for
candidates whom he identified as being
most able to defeat the Kremlin’s nomi-
nees. The Kremlin used bogus excuses to
disqualify not just Mr Navalny’s associates,
but all independent candidates, including
the more moderate ones. This sparked the
large-scale protests.
The Moscow authorities initially
showed restraint. But when a couple ofRussiaThe Kremlin v the people
MOSCOW
Repression doesn’t work as well as it used toEurope
32 Italian crime
32 State elections in Germany
33 The tenth city: Katowice
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