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Shrinking Putin protests seek new spark
Clean Media Correspondent
Moscow: Mar 11: (CMC) Russia's protest movement is looking for new tactics to pose a more serious challenge to Vladimir Putin after its latest rally failed to muster big numbers and cracks appeared in its unity.
Organisers admitted no more than 25,000 people came out yesterday for a protest one week after Putin's crushing presidential poll victory -- a fraction of the numbers at past events that activists said rallied over 100,000.
Their ranks looked not only thinner but also older and more nationalist in tone as the hip city youth that turned past gatherings into celebrations largely stayed at home.
Analysts and organisers both feel the movement will need to become more focused and set concrete targets to keep its momentum now that the 12-year era of Putin's domination has been extended through at least 2018.
"We all know what we are against. We must show what we are for," the young celebrity-cum-journalist Ksenia Sobchak told the subdued Moscow crowd.
Few observers doubt that the wave of public discontent -- even if it now takes on a more latent form after the March 4 ballot -- has given Putin something to ponder as he prepares for his May 7 inauguration in the Kremlin.
Clean Media Correspondent
Moscow: Mar 11: (CMC) Russia's protest movement is looking for new tactics to pose a more serious challenge to Vladimir Putin after its latest rally failed to muster big numbers and cracks appeared in its unity.
Organisers admitted no more than 25,000 people came out yesterday for a protest one week after Putin's crushing presidential poll victory -- a fraction of the numbers at past events that activists said rallied over 100,000.
Their ranks looked not only thinner but also older and more nationalist in tone as the hip city youth that turned past gatherings into celebrations largely stayed at home.
Analysts and organisers both feel the movement will need to become more focused and set concrete targets to keep its momentum now that the 12-year era of Putin's domination has been extended through at least 2018.
"We all know what we are against. We must show what we are for," the young celebrity-cum-journalist Ksenia Sobchak told the subdued Moscow crowd.
Few observers doubt that the wave of public discontent -- even if it now takes on a more latent form after the March 4 ballot -- has given Putin something to ponder as he prepares for his May 7 inauguration in the Kremlin.
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