Russia’s opposition

Not a good week

Lost elections and another arrest give the opposition more problems

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Readers' comments



The online elections of the Coordination Council of the Opposition are over. According to the organizers' stats, 80k people have voted, which represents 0.07% of the total number of voters in Russia. By allowing multiple votes, the organizers could obtain impressive figures of support, such as "over 40k votes" for the world's leading intellectual of last year Mr Navalny.

It can be considered a success of the Russian opposition to have drawn so many people into voting for them. Within the past year the support of the informal opposition grew significantly from 0.05% up to 0.07%. At such a pace, only 1500 years from now Putin's regime will have a serious opponent to face and it ought to be prepared for a tough landing.


The only personality with the experience, the qualifications and the abilities to take on Putin, is Mikhail Khordokovski.

This is why Putin finds every ruse in the book to keep him imprisoned.

The day that the ex-head of Yukos re-emerges as a political force, will be when heads like Seichin, Putin, & the thugs from St Petersburg ex-KGB will roll, then all the thieves and robbers will start swopping places with him for a long awaited prison term in Chita.


" single force is competing with Mr Putin for power".

For two reasons: a) there is no single force, indeed there is no force of any kind ; b) for the next eight years, or as long as Putin remains IN POWER, no force will be allowed to compete for HIS powers.

kuzmich in reply to Didomyk

Didomyk, feels from your post you are a pessimist learning Chinese. Russian is your mother tongue. 25-30 years ago, you never even thought the Soviet Union would collapse and you would enjoy posting on the Economist.

Didomyk in reply to kuzmich


You are still dreaming in Techicolor. The Soviet collapse had been predicted before I learned how to walk. As you know, the next artificial conglomerate to collapse will be the one now called the Russian Federation. Its not unlike the collapse of the Roman or the Ottaman Empires. Just like the Teutonic Knights failed to protect and expand the Prussian empire, Russian Don Cossacs will quickly find that their cavalry charge remains just a piece of history.



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