President Putin has compared the wave of anti-government demonstrations that swept through Russia on March 26, with the “Arab spring” in the middle East. His position is that to justify the suppression of the protest movement. Putin Stokes fears related to the fact that the chaos that emerged in the middle East after the “Arab spring” may spread in Russia. Its purpose is to reduce the interest of Russians in anti-government activities.
Putin so far has not commented on the fact that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev suspected of corruption, what was the reason for the start of the demonstrations. Experts believe that the discontent of Russian corruption problems will increase considerably.
Suspicions that Prime Minister Medvedev made a fortune illegally, led to the beginning of the current demonstrations, which were attended by tens of thousands of people across Russia and conducted mostly in major cities. Police detained more than 1,300 people. The presidential Council of the Russian Federation for civil society development and human rights began to investigate the volatile situation. The speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko stressed that the necessary dialogue with the people. The leader of the party “Fair Russia” Sergey Mironov has demanded to check corruption suspicions Medvedev. This suggests that people began to Express dissatisfaction with the authoritarian actions of the authorities.
Nevertheless, on 30 March, President Putin at the forum “Arctic — territory of dialogue” for the first time raised the issue of the demonstrations. He stressed that the Arab spring and the Ukrainian crisis broke out under the banner of the fight against corruption. It is obvious that the Russian leader is seriously concerned that such demonstrations could lead to the coup. Moreover, Putin has called the demands by Western countries to release arrested demonstrators pressure on Russia, thereby justifying the reaction of the Russian authorities.
As for the Prime Minister Medvedev, on 29 March, President Putin visited together with him the Arctic island. It is an unprecedented case when Putin and Medvedev together visiting the regions. According to experts, this illustrates the support that Putin had Medvedev. The Russian President stated that he welcomed the interest of public opinion to corruption problems, but not a word is said about the responsibility of the Prime Minister Medvedev.
Russian media noted that Putin will not make Medvedev a scolding, because that would mean that he went on about the protest movement.
Political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko believes that the growing discontent of Russians corruption is the growing social stratification of the Russian society. In his opinion, such actions of the authorities will not find understanding among the Russians.
