JRL NEWSWATCH: “Violent Crackdowns on Russian Opposition Reveal Dangerous Policy Shift” – Moscow Times/ Sam Greene

“The level of confrontation between the Kremlin and the Russian opposition has increased, and along with it the scale and severity of the law-enforcement response to protests.”

“There has been a significant and sustained shift in the Kremlin’s relationship with the Russian opposition[] and … the Russian public [generally] …. Authorities across the country have issued ever fewer permits for protests and rallies, while increasing the scale and severity of the law-enforcement response to unsanctioned gatherings. … The temperature of confrontation between the Russian state and disaffected citizens has increased across the board. … Putin faces a conundrum. … the immediate demands of political survival – from keeping fence-sitters out of the ranks of the opposition, to staving off challenges from a nervous elite – require him to demonstrate that he’s unafraid to use force against his own citizens. On the other, because violence serves to galvanize the opposition, those very demonstrations increase the risk of a revolutionary spiral of escalation. … not to say that Russia faces a revolution …. [yet] the same insoluble dilemma … eventually faced by every autocrat …. Violence becomes … key to their survival and contains the germ of their downfall.”

Click here for: “Violent Crackdowns on Russian Opposition Reveal Dangerous Policy Shift; The level of confrontation between the Kremlin and the Russian opposition has increased, and along with it the scale and severity of the law-enforcement response to protests.” – Moscow Times/ Sam Greene