Russian Opposition calls for Putin's Head

Putin

An uncommon protest calling for Vladmir Putin to resign in Russia is getting some attention. Russian opposition movement leader Boris Nemtsov said that the crowd in Kaliningrad was protesting a 25-35% rise in utility bills as well as against unemployment. The opposition movement is called Solidarity- so does this mean a new day in Russian politics?

Doubtful- but a protest is a protest, and the fact that there were thousands screaming for Putin’s head on the media is nothing to laugh at. Nemtsov even said that the Communists were involved in organizing the protest.

"I believe this is a precursor to events likely to roll out over Russia," said Nemtsov. So maybe I’m wrong- but I think I’m right. There may be a new round of political pressure, but issues like higher utility bills and unemployment are not going to stoke a revolution to overthrow a government- and certainly a man like Putin is not going to step down.

Russian economic numbers are not great. Their GDP is smaller by 8.9%. Unemployment is at 8.2%. (Wait, so more Russians are working than Americans?) Russian authorities make annual increases in housing bills after the New Year, which Reuters said can increase inflation, apparently at 1.7% for most of January. That’s bad.

Like us, the Russian government is just dumping money into the economy and subsidizing places that have been the hardest hit. Reading their story, I couldn’t help but think- this is what’s happening to us here. All that is different is that there is this sense of hopelessness in the article, like that’s how it always is in Russia where it’s cold and they only eat potatoes and drink vodka all the time. Not like here, where our economic problems are just a blip on the ever upwardly increasing line that is America.

But really- is Putin going anywhere? His most recent poll number is that his “trust rating” is at 54%. President Medvedev got 42%. I wonder what Obama would get?

The rally could have been up to 10,000 people in Kaliningrad, as it was, or it could have been 100,000 in Washington screaming at the White House about unemployment and foreclosures. I think the take-away here is not that people want Putin to resign, but that the hard times around the world in a lot of capitalist countries are not going to go away anytime soon, and that the rising unemployment means that the people of those countries are getting restless. We may not be seeing riots here in the U.S., and we probably won’t, but if basic necessities start rising in price and people can’t find work, well, that means unrest. And you get thousands of people showing up to get rid of the people in power. Not different ideas about other ways to do things- but anger!

I don’t think there will be buses descending on Washington anytime soon, but I do think that there will be if things keep going as they are and nothing of substance happens. Afterall, it’s really the spin on the story that makes this one any different from the U.S.

Photo Credit: World Economic Forum (via Flickr under CCL)