EDITORIAL: Russian thaw

It may be winter in Moscow but the Arab Spring seems to have thawed the patience of the public if the response to the spontaneous demonstration at the capital is any indicator.

Seldom in Russia has one seen such a sight as millions poured out to question the authenticity of the recent election a midst loud proclamations of rigging. Usually the protests are mooted and slip off the news circuit as the tame media settles for the official version. But this time around even the Russian authorities who do keep a close eye on what they see as dissidence seem to have been caught napping.

Although a fortnight earlier there had been a public gathering of reasonable magnitude one had concluded the incident was over and was a reaction to the election result but Russian stoicism would surrender to the inevitable. That is, they would give in, as a people and life would go on even as the chill of a winter would frost the protest. No one assessed the rumblings deep within the citizenry and what happened in Moscow found echo in other major cities as more people voiced their outrage at what they see as the rigged results.

Until now, the rants of a few bloggers and the call to arms (as in peaceful protest) were limited to a few individuals. But now, led by the more high profile of these professionals and members of the Russian intelligentsia these movements are beginning to coalesce into one mass surge of public opinion.

The target is remarkably like the one in India with bureaucratic and political corruption at its core. The leader in Russia in the high profile lawyer, Alexei Navalny, whose popularity has soared making him untouchable by the government. At this stage, if they tried to gag him the 120,000 strong mass could double. Perhaps, Putin would do well to call for an investigation into the charges of the rigging and the deeply rooted corrupt practices that seem to have ripped the façade of public patience.

- Khaleej Times, Dubai