Protesters in Yekaterinburg tear down fence around proposed construction area in local park.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent approach to the semi-crisis in Yekaterinburg was 'Putin the balancer' in action. Although I had written
several pieces recently asking whether Putin might be losing his touch in, or perhaps even his desire to continue balancing Russia's sundry political forces opposed, partially opposed, sometimes opposed, etc. to each other along every parameter related to Russian politics. Specifically, there was
some evidence he was turning to the right and allowing the
siloviki to get rougher with the liberal democratic opposition. However, I did not conclude that he had lost the balancing touch that I have
argued repeatedly has guided his soft authoritarian method for ruling Russia.
In the end, the semi-crisis played out as many Russian small and major crises under 'Putin the balancer' have.
One needs only to recall the compromise with St. Petersburg opposition to the GazProm construction project for the historical city center a few years back or the administration's much more recent, but somehow forgotten compromise on raising the pension age after the government's proposals were met with concern and some public protests. The Yekaterinburg semi-crisis pitted the Russian Orthodox Church and the city's mayor, who proposed and began to break ground on the construction of new church in central city square, against a very local movement with a largely youth-oriented set of demonstrators, who opposed the project referring the retention of the pen square and neighboring green area that locals used for walking babies and dogs and general strolling about.
As the week-long demonstrations began to get aggressive, with activists tearing down the fence that cordoned off the construction area and police beginning to react with use some physical force and arrests to put down the protests, Putin broke his silence.
He weighed in on the side of those who proposed conducting a public opinion survey to decide the issue. Those closer to the demonstrations proposed either cancelling construction or, more moderately, holding a referendum. Several Russian commentators from the liberal democratic opposition as well as Western observers asserted as the crisis mounted that if a opinion survey (or a referendum for that matter) was conducted, then it simply would be falsified, and construction would proceed and if necessary the protests would be violently suppressed. This was the nature of the regime as had been proven over and over again, they said.
What happened? The opinion survey was conducted, and some 70 percent of residents opposed construction. As a result construction at this site has been cancelled.
We have not heard many mea culpas from these experts.
Comment: Iran isn't the first country to rightly accuse the US of economic terrorism: