As Putin’s Grip Gets Tighter, A Time of Protest Fades In Russia -- New York Times
MOSCOW — As the final days of 2012 slipped away, no one at Denis Terekhov’s company was talking about the next antigovernment protest.
Compared with the same time last year — when Mr. Terekhov delivered an impromptu lecture on avoiding police detention — Moscow feels like Moscow again. Profits at this marketing firm have tripled, the corporate holiday party featured cocktails in an unnatural shade of blue, and his “office plankton,” as the city’s legion of desk workers are sometimes known, scattered to vacations as far as Bali and Paris.
Mr. Terekhov, who watched his employees as last year’s protests surged and ebbed, says it is now clear that they took part because it was fashionable, nothing more. They felt strongly about the anti-Putin rallies, he said, but “they also feel strong emotions about their iPhones.”
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My Comment: The Putin message is clear. You can do anything that you want .... make all the money that you want .... you can evenly 'bitch' on social media on social and political issues .... but DO NOT ACTIVELY protest against the government.
Will the protest movement come back .... only if the economic hard times return. But in today's Russia .... for most people it is the good times .... pensioners are being taken care of (my elderly aunt just got a new government subsidized apartment in Moscow and it is impressive), people are working, the currency is stable, inflation is under control, people's lives are getting better. But if this changes .... economic hard times return .... and people feel that they have nothing to lose .... the protest movement will come back and with a vengeance.