Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia

Opposition to the government of President Vladimir Putin in Russia, commonly referred to as the Russian opposition, can be divided between the parliamentary opposition parties in the State Duma and the various non-systemic opposition organizations. While the former are largely viewed as being more or less loyal to the government and Putin, the latter oppose the government and are mostly unrepresented in government bodies. According to Russian NGO Levada Center, about 15% of the Russian population disapproved of Putin in the beginning of 2023.

The "systemic opposition" is mainly composed of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), A Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP), New People and other minor parties; these political groups, while claiming to be in opposition, generally support the government's policies.

Major political parties considered to be part of the non-systemic opposition include Yabloko and the People's Freedom Party (PARNAS), along with the unregistered party Russia of the Future and Libertarian Party of Russia (LPR). Other notable opposition groups included the Russian Opposition Coordination Council (KSO) (2012–2013) and The Other Russia (2006–2011), as well as various non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Their supporters vary in political ideology, ranging from liberals, socialists, and anarchists, to Russian nationalists. They are mainly unified by their opposition to Putin and government corruption. However, a lack of unity within the opposition has also hindered its standing. Opposition figures claim that a number of laws have been passed and other measures taken by Putin's government to prevent them from having any electoral success.

Background and composition

The Guardian's report from Luke Harding noted that during the 2000s Neo-Nazis, Russian nationalists, and ultranationalist groups were the most significant opposition to Putin's government.

Some observers noted what they described as a "generational struggle" among Russians over perception of Putin's rule, with younger Russians more likely to be against Putin and his policies and older Russians more likely to accept the narrative presented by state-controlled media in Russia. Putin's approval rating among young Russians was 32% in January 2019, according to the Levada Center. Another poll from the organization placed Putin's support among Russians aged 18–24 at 20% in December 2020.

Actions and campaigns

Current campaigns of the opposition include the dissemination of anti-Putin reports such as Putin. Results. 10 years (2010), Putin. Corruption (2011) and Life of a Slave on Galleys (2012). Video versions of these reports, entitled Lies of Putin's regime, have been viewed by about 10 million times on the Internet.

In addition, smaller-scale series of actions are conducted. For example, in Moscow in the spring of 2012 saw a series of flash mobs "White Square", when protesters walked through the Red Square with white ribbons, in the late spring and summer, they organized the protest camp "Occupy Abay" and autumn they held weekly "Liberty walks" with the chains symbolizing solidarity with political prisoners.

A monstration is a parody demonstration where participants gently poke fun at Kremlin policies.

Participation in elections

Some opposition figures, for example, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, said there are no elections in Putin's Russia, and that participation in a procedure called elections only legitimizes the regime.

On the other hand, a small part of liberals (the party of "Democratic Choice") consider elections as the main tool to achieve their political goals.

History

Rally in support of political prisoners in Russia, Moscow on 27 October 2013

2006–2008 Dissenters' March

Main article: Dissenters' March

The Dissenters' March was a series of Russian opposition protests started in 2006. It was preceded by opposition rallies in Russian cities in December 2005 which involved fewer people. Most of the Dissenters' March protests were unsanctioned by authorities. The Dissenters' March rally was organized by The Other Russia, a broad umbrella group that includes opposition leaders, including National Bolshevik Party with its leader Eduard Limonov, far-left Vanguard of Red Youth as well as liberals such as former world chess champion and United Civil Front leader Garry Kasparov.

2009–2011 Strategy-31

Main article: Strategy-31

Strategy-31 was a series of civic protests in support of the right to peaceful assembly in Russia guaranteed by Article 31 of the Russian Constitution. Since 31 July 2009, the protests were held in Moscow on Triumfalnaya Square on the 31st of every month with 31 days. Strategy-31 was led by writer Eduard Limonov and human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva.

2011–2013 Russian protests

Main article: 2011–2013 Russian protests

Anti-Putin protesters march in Moscow, 12 June 2012

Starting from 5 December 2011, the day after the elections to the State Duma, there have been repeated massive political actions of Russian citizens who disagree with the outcome of these "elections". The current surge of mass opposition rallies has been called in some publications "a snow revolution". These rallies continued during the campaign for the election of the President of Russia and after 4 March 2012, presidential election, in which Putin officially won the first round. The protesters claimed that the elections were accompanied by violations of the election legislation and widespread fraud. One of the main slogans of the majority of actions was "For Fair Elections!" and a white ribbon has been chosen as symbol of protests. Beginning from spring 2012 the actions were called marches of millions and took the form of a march followed by a rally. The speeches of participants were anti-Putin and anti-government.

The "March of Millions" on 6 May 2012 at the approach to Bolotnaya Square was dispersed by the police. In the Bolotnaya Square case 17 people are accused of committing violence against police (12 of them are in jail). A large number of human rights defenders and community leaders have declared the detainees innocent and the police responsible for the clashes.

For the rally on 15 December 2012, the anniversary of the mass protests against rigged elections, the organizers failed to agree with the authorities, and participation was low. Several thousand people gathered without placards on Lubyanka Square and laid flowers at the Solovetsky Stone.

2014 anti-war protests

Main article: 2014 anti-war protests in Russia

March for Peace, Moscow, 21 September 2014

In 2014, members of the Russian opposition have held anti-war protests in opposition to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and Crimean crisis. The March of Peace protests took place in Moscow on 15 March, a day before the Crimean status referendum. The protests have been the largest in Russia since the 2011 protests. Reuters reported that 30,000 people participated in 15 March anti-war rally.

2017–2018 Russian protests

Main article: 2017–2018 Russian protests

March in memory of Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, 26 February 2017

On 26 March 2017, protests against alleged corruption in the Russian government took place simultaneously in many cities across the country. The protests began after the release of the film He Is Not Dimon to You by Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation. An April 2017 Levada poll found that 45% of surveyed Russians supported the resignation of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, against it 33% of respondents. Newsweek reported that "An opinion poll by the Moscow-based Levada Center indicated that 38 percent of Russians supported the rallies and that 67 percent held Putin personally responsible for high-level corruption."

A May 2017 Levada poll found that 58% of surveyed Russians supported the protests, while 23% said they disapprove.

2018 Russian pension protests

Main article: 2018 Russian pension protests

The rally for fair elections 10 December 2011 at the Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. Luzhkov Bridge with banners "Crooks and thieves, give us back elections", "Deputies, we have not chosen you!"

From July 2018, almost every weekend, protest rallies and demonstrations were organized against the planned retirement age hike. Such events occurred in nearly all major cities countrywide including Novosibirsk, St.-Petersburg and Moscow. These events were coordinated by all opposition parties with the leading role of the communists. Also trade unions and some individual politicians (among whom Navalny) functioned as organizers of the public actions.

An intention to hike the retirement age has drastically downed the rating of the President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Russia. So in July 2018, just 49% would vote for Putin if the presidential elections were held in that moment (while during the elections in March 2018, he got 76.7%).

2019 Russian protests

Main article: 2019 Moscow protests

Moscow rally in support of opposition candidates for the Moscow City Duma. August 10, 2019.

In the first half of 2019 there were approximately 863 protests across the country.

From July 2019, protest rallies for an access to 2019 Moscow City Duma election of independent candidates started in Moscow. The 20 July rally was the largest since 2012. The 27 July rally set a record in number of detainees and police violence. The 10 August rally outnumbered the 27 July rally, oppositional sources report 50–60 thousand participants.

2020–21 Khabarovsk Krai protests

Main article: 2020–2021 Khabarovsk Krai protests

On 9 July 2020, the popular governor of the Khabarovsk Krai, Sergei Furgal, who defeated the candidate of Putin's United Russia party in elections two years ago, was arrested and flown to Moscow. Furgal was arrested 15 years after the alleged crimes he is accused of. Every day since 11 June, mass protests have been held in the Khabarovsk Krai in support of Furgal. On 25 July, tens of thousands of people were estimated to have taken part in the third major rally in Khabarovsk. The protests included chants of "Away with Putin!", "This is our region", "Furgal was our choice" or "shame on LDPR" and "Shame on the Kremlin!"

In a Levada Center poll carried out from 24 to 25 July 2020, 45% of surveyed Russians viewed the protests positively, 26% neutrally and 17% negatively.

2021 Russian protests

Main article: 2021 Russian protests

Protests in Lipetsk, 23 January 2021

On 23 January 2021, protests across Russia were held in support of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was detained and then jailed after returning to Russia on 17 January following his poisoning. A few days before the protests, an investigation by Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Foundation was published, accusing Putin of corruption. The video garnered 70 million views in a few days.

Since jailing of Navalny a "hardening of the course" was observed from the government side, with a choice of "go West or East" being offered to prominent opposition figures, meaning a non-negotiable alternative of either going on emigration ("West") or to prison colonies ("East"). Among those who left Russia are politicians Lyubov Sobol, Dmitry Gudkov, Ivan Zhdanov (whose father had been however arrested in Russia as a hostage), Kira Yarmysh, journalists Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogan, Roman Badanin. The wave of repressions has been also linked with the September 2021 Duma elections.

2021 Russian election protests

Main article: 2021 Russian election protests

Protests against alleged large-scale fraud in favour of the ruling party were held.

2022 anti-war protests

Main article: 2022 anti-war protests in Russia

See also: Protests against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

Anti-war graffiti in Saint Petersburg, Russia

Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for discussing the Bucha massacre in Ukraine on a YouTube stream.

Illustration depicting Russian artist Aleksandra Skochilenko, who was arrested for replacing supermarket price tags with anti-war messages

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, protesters have used the white-blue-white flag as a symbol of opposition though not all used the flag. Several opposition activists (such as Maria Motuznaya) had criticized the justification by AssezJeune (one of the creators of the flag) to remove the red stripe.

On the afternoon of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Investigative Committee of Russia issued a warning to Russians that they would face legal repercussions for joining unsanctioned protests related to "the tense foreign political situation". The protests have been met with widespread repression by the Russian authorities. According to OVD-Info, at least 14,906 people were detained from 24 February to 13 March, including the largest single-day mass arrests in post-Soviet Russian history on 6 March.

In February 2022, more than 30,000 technology workers, 6,000 medical workers, 3,400 architects, more than 4,300 teachers, more than 17,000 artists, 5,000 scientists, and 2,000 actors, directors, and other creative figures signed open letters calling for Putin's government to stop the war. Some Russians who signed petitions against Russia's war in Ukraine lost their jobs.

On 17 March, Putin gave a speech in which he called opponents of the war "scum and traitors," saying that a "natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country." Russian authorities were encouraging Russians to report their friends, colleagues and family members to the police for expressing opposition to the war in Ukraine.

More than 2,000 people were detained or fined by May 2022 under the laws prohibiting "fake" information about the military. In July 2022, Alexei Gorinov, a member of the Krasnoselsky district council in Moscow, was sentenced to seven years in prison after making anti-war comments at a council meeting in March. Lawyer Pavel Chikov said that this was the first jail term under the new Russian 2022 war censorship laws. According to Amnesty International, as of June 2023, up to 20,000 Russian citizens had been subject to heavy reprisals for opposing the war in Ukraine.

In October 2023, Putin's close associate Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma, said that Russians who "desire the victory of the murderous Nazi Kyiv regime" should be sent to the far-eastern region of Magadan, known for its Stalin-era Gulag camps, and forced to work in the mines. In November 2023, Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel that Russians who left the country after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and are now returning "should understand that no one here is waiting for them with open arms" because they "committed treason against Russia".

2022–present Russian partisan movement

Main article: Belarusian and Russian partisan movement (2022–present)

In response to the invasion of Ukraine, numerous armed pro-democratic, and anti-authoritarian partisan and insurgent groups have sprung up within Russia in open rebellion with the aim of sabotaging the war effort and overthrowing Putin and his regime. These groups primarily engage in guerrilla warfare against the state and utilize the destruction of infrastructure such as railways, military recruitment centers, and radio towers, as well as other means to harm the state such as conducting assassinations. Some of the most notable groups involved in the conflict include the Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists (BOAK) regarded by The Insider as "The most active 'subversive' force" within Russia since the war began, the National Republican Army, the Freedom of Russia Legion, and the far-right Russian Volunteer Corps.

2023 Wagner rebellion

Main article: Wagner Group rebellion

On June 23, 2023, forces loyal to Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group began a mutiny against the Russian government. Citing the Russian Ministry of Defence's, and namely the Russian Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu's mishandling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as claiming the Russian army shelled one of the Wagner group's barracks, resulting in casualties. Wagner occupied the city of Rostov-on-Don, surrounding and then seizing the headquarters of the Southern Military District. Prigozhin vowed to march on Moscow and arrest Shoigu, and other Russian generals, and put them on trial for murder of Wagner personnel.

There were no sizeable spontaneous displays of public support for the Putin government during the rebellion. The Russian population displayed a predominantly "silent" and apathetic reaction. Russia analyst Anna Matveeva contrasted the Russian public's response to that of the Turkish public during the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, where numerous Turkish citizens actively participated in anti-coup demonstrations.

2024 Russian presidential election

Main article: 2024 Russian presidential election

Action in memory of Alexei Navalny at the monument to victims of political repression in St. Petersburg on 16 February 2024

Under the previous rules, Putin would have had to have stood down as president in 2024 due to term limits in Russia's constitution, but it was widely expected that he would attempt to stay in power through certain means such as changing the constitution, even though Putin claimed in 2018 that he wouldn't. Subsequently, Putin announced that constitutional changes would be proposed allowing him to stay in power until 2036 by "resetting" his terms, widely criticised by opponents, and these changes were then 'approved' in a referendum in which independent election monitors received hundreds of reports of violations and employees who were paid by the state such as teachers, doctors and public sector workers were deliberately prompted to vote in favour. Leader of the opposition Alexei Navalny dismissed the legitimacy of the poll and denounced the changes, saying that they would make Putin "president for life". The changes meant that Putin could now officially run in the 2024 Russian presidential election, and he announced he would do so.

Journalist Yekaterina Duntsova tried to run in the 2024 election, saying she would run on an platform opposing the war in Ukraine and commenting: "Any sane person taking this step would be afraid - but fear must not win". However, only three days after her application, she was barred from running by the Central Election Commission, who claimed that she had made '100 mistakes' on her forms and barred her from even collecting signatures to start her campaign. The BBC reported on Dunstova's rejection that: "the immediate slap-down of a Putin critic will be seen as evidence by some that no dissent will be tolerated in the campaign". Another individual who attempted to become a candidate, the nationalist pro-war blogger Igor Girkin, openly declared that the election was a "sham", stating that "the only winner is known in advance" and "I understand perfectly well that in the current situation in Russia, participating in the presidential campaign is like sitting down at a table to play with card sharps". Girkin, a former FSB agent and a Putin critic, was later sentenced to four years imprisonment.

In late January 2024, a source in the Putin administration told the Latvia-based news outlet Meduza: "There’s a portion of the electorate that wants the war to end. If [Putin’s opponent in the elections] decides to cater to this demand, they may get a decent percentage. And [the Putin administration] doesn’t need that."

Boris Nadezhdin declared his intention to run on a platform of opposing Putin and the Ukraine war. He quickly gained support, and queues formed in towns and villages across Russia and outside Boris Nadezhdin’s headquarters in Moscow to sign their name in support of his bid for presidency. Footage showed how many thousands had queued even in the snow to sign their names, and he garnered "surprise levels of support". Nadezhdin proved particularly popular with younger urban Russians. The number of Russians who had turned up to sign their names was so unexpectedly high that extra sign-up centres had to be added in Moscow. NBC News said that the fact that Nadezhdin had managed to collect more than 100,000 signatures to support his campaign was "no small feat for a candidate who says his campaign is funded exclusively by crowdfunding".

In what was described as something "seemingly unachievable in Russian politics", Nadezhdin managed to unify many prominent opposition politicians and public figures behind his campaign and gained their endorsements: Yekaterina Duntsova (who had previously been barred), Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Ekaterina Schulmann, Yulia Navalnaya (wife of Alexei Navalny), Ilya Varlamov, Lyubov Sobol and many others. Russia's main opposition leader Navalny also passed a message from his imprisonment giving his backing to Nadezhdin's campaign. Navalny had himself been barred from the previous Russian presidential election in 2018 on what is widely seen as political grounds.

In January 2024, citing unidentified sources in the Kremlin, the independent news outlet Vyorstka reported that the CEC, at the behest of the Kremlin, would likely reject Nadezhdin’s registration due to his criticism of Putin and anti-war stances. The CEC regularly uses the process of having to collect signatures to refuse to register would-be opposition candidates, acting as a form of filter to stop unwanted developments for the Kremlin. It was already widely thought that authorities would not welcome a candidate who is openly anti the war in Ukraine. On 30 January 2024, Kremlin propagandist and television presenter Vladimir Solovyov warned Nadezhdin: "I feel bad for Boris. The fool didn’t realize that he’s not being set up to run for president but for a criminal case on charges of betraying the Motherland."

On 8 February 2024, Nadezhdin was barred from running due to alleged "irregularities" in the signatures of voters supporting his candidacy. The election commission claimed that only 95,587 of his signatures in support of his candidacy were valid, just short of the 100,000 needed to run. His team said that some of the "errors" the election commission had claimed existed were merely minor typos that happened when handwritten names were put into its computers.

From prison, Alexei Navalny, as well as his allies, had called on supporters to protest Putin and the invasion of Ukraine during the third day of the presidential election by all going to vote against Putin at the same time. Navalny then died in suspicious circumstances in his harsh imprisonment at a prison colony in the Arctic Circle, aged only 47, on 16 February 2024. After his death, Russians began bringing flowers to monuments to victims of political repression in cities across the country. People laid flowers at Moscow’s Solovetsky Stone and the Wall of Grief. The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office warned Russians against mass protests.

Opposition figures

• Zhanna Agalakova
• Liya Akhedzhakova
• Malik Akhmedilov* †
• Georgy Alburov
• Lyudmila Alexeyeva*
• Maria Alyokhina
• Maximilian Andronikov, a.k.a. "Caesar"*
• Vladimir Ashurkov
• Ilya Azar
• Farid Babayev*†
• Anastasia Baburova* †
• Mikhail Beketov* †
• Nikita Belykh*
• Boris Berezovsky* †
• Darya Besedina
• Nikolai Bondarenko
• Dmitry Bykov*
• Yuriy Chervochkin* †
• Alexei Devotchenko* †
• Roman Dobrokhotov*
• Yury Dud*
• Yekaterina Duntsova
• Natalya Estemirova* †
• Sergei Furgal*
• Maria Gaidar*
• Yegor Gaidar* †
• Maxim Galkin*
• Igor Girkin*
• Nikolai Glushkov* †
• Alexei Gorinov*
• Dmitry Gudkov*
• Gennady Gudkov*
• Andrey Illarionov*
• Vladimir Kara-Murza*
• Nadezhda Karpova*
• Garry Kasparov*
• Mikhail Kasyanov*
• Maxim Katz
• Irina Khakamada
• Mikhail Khodorkovsky*
• Pavel Khodorkovsky*
• Andrei Kozyrev*
• Nina L. Khrushcheva*
• Timur Kuashev* †
• Alexander Litvinenko* †
• Marina Litvinenko
• Mikhail Lobanov
• Ravil Maganov* †
• Sergei Magnitsky* †
• Mikhail Matveyev
• Stanislav Markelov* †
• Boris Mints*
• Sergey Mitrokhin
• Sergey Mokhnatkin* †
• Dmitry Muratov
• Boris Nadezhdin
• Yulia Navalnaya
• Alexei Navalny* †
• Boris Nemtsov* †
• Zhanna Nemtsova*
• Oleg Orlov
• Marina Ovsyannikova*
• Oxxxymiron*
• Leonid Parfyonov
• Dmitry Petrov* †
• Nikolay Platoshkin*
• Anna Politkovskaya* †
• Ilya Ponomarev*
• Lev Ponomaryov
• Yevgeny Prigozhin* †
• Mikhail Prokhorov*
• Valery Rashkin
• Yevgeny Roizman*
• Ivan Rybkin*
• Vladimir Ryzhkov
• Yekaterina Samutsevich
• Ekaterina Schulmann*
• Viktor Shenderovich*
• Yuri Shevchuk
• Lev Shlosberg
• Ruslan Shaveddinov*
• Yuri Shchekochikhin* †
• Yury Shutov* †
• Natalya Sindeyeva
• Aleksandra Skochilenko*
• Emilia Slabunova
• Irina Slavina* †
• Olga Smirnova*
• Fyodor Smolov
• Ksenia Sobchak
• Lyubov Sobol*
• Vladimir Sviridov
• Nadya Tolokonnikova
• Sergei Tretyakov* †
• Anastasia Udaltsova
• Sergei Udaltsov
• Yevgeny Urlashov*
• Denis Voronenkov* †
• Alexei Venediktov*
• Pyotr Verzilov*
• Kira Yarmysh*
• Ilya Yashin*
• Grigory Yavlinsky
• Magomed Yevloyev* †
• Sergei Yushenkov* †
• Akhmed Zakayev*
• Ivan Zhdanov*

Symbols

Russians protest against the war in Ukraine with the white-blue-white Russian flag, on 2 March 2022

In 2012, the term white ribbon opposition was applied to the protesters for fair elections as they wore white ribbons as their symbol.

The white-blue-white flag is a symbol of opposition to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine that has been used by Russian anti-war protesters. It has also been used as a symbol of opposition to the current government of Russia.

During the Wagner Group mutiny, forces loyal to the Wagner group painted a red Z on the side of their vehicles, in reference to the white Z used by Russian forces during the invasion of Ukraine.

In culture

Books

• 12 Who Don't Agree (2009), non-fiction book by Valery Panyushkin
• Winter is Coming (2015), non-fiction book by former Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov

Films

• Les Enfants terribles de Vladimir Vladimirovitch Poutine (2006)
• This is Our City (2007), by Alexander Shcherbanosov
• The Revolution That Wasn't (2008), by Alyona Polunina
• Term (2018), by Alexander Rastorguyev
• Putin's Palace: History of the World's Largest Bribe (2021), by Alexei Navalny
• Navalny (2022), by Daniel Roher

See also

• 2022–2023 Belarusian and Russian partisan movement
• Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
• Belarusian opposition
• Democracy movements of China
• Dissenters' March
• Kazakh opposition
• Kirill Serebrennikov
• National Endowment for Democracy
• Non-system opposition
• Political groups under Vladimir Putin's presidency
• Reaction of Russian intelligentsia to the 2014 annexation of Crimea
• Russia under Vladimir Putin
• "Russia will be free"

External links

• Media related to Demonstrations and protests in Russia at Wikimedia Commons
• List of political prisoners in Russia (Russian) in 2015, compiled by "New Chronicle of Current Events".