Posted on 12/30/2017 11:43:57 AM PST by GoldenState_Rose
If there is one thing the Russian leadership despises, and fears, it is civil unrest. The “color revolutions” of recent decades in Ukraine and elsewhere, along with the “Arab Spring,” have shown Moscow in real time what can happen when a political movement spirals beyond control.
The Russian people have seen their standards of living decline, and social services cut in favor of military spending over the last several years. In short, the trappings exist right now for a good old-fashioned spate of civil disobedience.
The Kremlin knows this. They thought they had all the T’s crossed and the I’s dotted. Then along comes Mr. Navalny calling for massive demonstrations across Russia a mere few weeks before the nation goes to vote.
If Mr. Putin pushes back too hard against Mr. Navalny, he could be outed as too authoritarian and his carefully crafted PR campaign and image could be tarnished. If he goes to soft, and let’s Mr. Navalny keep going, Russia could be in for some serious political unrest.
We have a showdown at the Moscow corral.
My bet is on Mr. Putin. I think he will shut Mr. Navalny down by any means necessary. There is simply too much on the line for the government he has built over the last few decades.
Mr. Putin is also counting on the Russian people, who are in no mood for a revolution, as they have seen how that can work out. The Bolsheviks destroyed Russia for a hundred years...
In any event, the next few weeks in the Russian Federation will be extremely interesting. Get the popcorn.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
No that was the Clintons.
I agree. The Russians can put up with a lot of crap out of fear that change = worse crap. The only thing that would really change this is a lot of dead Russian boys coming home in coffins from somewhere.
Ain’t nobody got time fo’ editors!
Watch one of these days it will be:
“He could loose”
Just wait for it.
Russia’s not going to experience a color revolution. The last time the US tried to start one Russia incepted 360 million in cash meant to fund it(2014). Russian intel is all over the NGO’s and other groups the state department sets these up with.
Color revolution - no.
Putin regime disintegrating - yes. Already happening. Ask the sanctioned oligarchs scrambling for their accounts.
>Putin regime disintegrating - yes. Already happening. Ask the sanctioned oligarchs scrambling for their accounts.
During the 70s and 80s, the US and most of the rest of the world sanctioned the crap out of South Africa. The standard of living dropped and then 5-10 years later it went through the roof. The primary results of sanctions were to force raw materials exporting economy to become an industrial economy which made South Africa very rich.
Russia’s in the same boat that South Africa. Sanctions are only going to force the re-industrialization of Russia an end goal that I suspect Putin wants.
Well it’s taken him an awfully long time to do that. So I suppose that will be his campaign slogan the THIRD time around. Only last week did he suggest the following:
“Putin Asks Rich Russians To Bring Back $1 Trillion As Sanctions “Pressure Gets Worse”
“Russian President Vladimir Putin is backing a capital amnesty plan in hopes that wealthy Russians will repatriate some of their overseas assets, a move that could bolster the Russian economy as U.S. sanctions take hold.”
“Perhaps she did...but this past year’s phase of protests is a whole different enchilada...Russians came out in droves not just in hippie hippie St. P and Moscow — but the provinces and outlying regions as well...aka Putin country. The heartland.”
Are you serious? Your post is like claiming that the Antifa riots in Berkeley and New York City are a harbinger to the imminent overthrow of the United States by the communist snowflakes.
You’re reading way too many comicbooks, Rose.
I left the country just before the latest round of protests so I will have to be there again to gauge...From what I hear now: people are frustrated, but situation is not so bad that people want to join a revolution. Some millennials will stop by the protests and sign petitions. The most passionate ones are those who spend a lot of time in the U.S. (visiting relatives, studying abroad etc...) and they feel the differences in livelihoods and freedom a lot more starkly than people who don’t travel a lot. They tend to be less patient about change.
The real timeline is not so much what takes place between now and next March (though anything CAN still happen, even in Russia...) -> but what takes place between now and 2024, which is when Putin’s final term is set to “end.”
And the issue is not even just about dissent from the population, but the instability brewing within Putin’s own inner circle of oligarchs et al.
If you want to gage protests that work, revisit the Egyptian street demonstrations to overthrow the Muslim Brotherhood. Or check out the building demonstrations in Poland and Hungary to crush the EU fascists.
It’s a matter of scale. The small protests in Russia don’t have the horsepower to throw out Putin. That’s why I compared them to the pitiable snowflake Antifa protests in Berkeley.
Cheers.
The Putin system may cave from within without the help of massive protests...
Good point.
This has already happened to some extent as Russian agriculture and domestic manufacturing have grown to fill the gap from the loss of EU imports.
In very real terms the economic sanctions have hurt Europe and made Russia stronger.
It also didn't hurt that Russia has a business oriented foreign policy and a charismatic leader capable of making big deals with foreign governments.
> In very real terms the economic sanctions have hurt Europe and made Russia stronger.
Which is why Europe wants so desperately to drop them.
Free trade is an interesting beast. A free trading raw material export orientated nation will never be able to industrialize. Such nations export raw materials in exchange for finished goods thus the cost of local raw materials will always be too high to encourage new local manufacturing.
Russian teenagers on protests and Putin - BBC News
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WLKzlg9ErxQ
Related BBC propaganda. Stupidity is flowing but worth watching for educational purpose.
After 70 years of leftist waste it is really hard to turn a mature person with some real life experience on their side so they are now after kids.
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