Challenger to Putin

On 12^th June 2017, the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, a critic of corruption and of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been sentenced for 30 days, for staging anti-corruption rallies in Russia.

Protest continues…

On Monday, a protest broke out a few hundred meters away from Kremlin where the Russian President Vladimir Putin was delivering a speech on ‘National Unity’. Around 5000 people took part in the demonstration and about 825 people have been detained. Thousands of angry protesters marched to Tverskaya Street, main venue in the capital screaming “shame” and “Putin thief”.

The Moscow protest was the most prominent one, compared to other rallies held in the past. It was held on ‘Russia day’, a national holiday. It involved mostly the younger generation, holding slogans like “only revolution will defeat corruption”.

Mr. Navalny had called a protest earlier on 26^th March. He has also organized a number of rallies across Russia. In some cities, the protests were sanctioned by the authorities but in others including St. Petersburg, it had been prohibited. As a result, 500 people along with Navalny were detained in the protest.

Why are they protesting?

Alexei Navalny has accused Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of amassing property worth millions of dollars and for having accumulated $1 billion in bribes from companies and charities run by his associates to acquire vineyards, yachts and mansions.

Navalny has proven himself to be savy on social media, having used platforms like Twitter, YouTube and online blogs to reach out to protestors. He said that he wanted a democratic state where taxes are used to build schools, hospitals and roads and not exhausted for personal interest.

The allegations were made in a report presented by Mr. Navalny on 2^nd March. The report read that a large proportion of the Prime Minister’s wealth came from charities made by Russia’s rich oligarchs. However, Mr. Medvedev declined these allegations and said such blames were because of the coming Presidential elections in 2018 that Alexei Navalny intends to stand for.

Fight against anti-corruption

Mr. Navalny, the anti-corruption leader, has been fighting against corruption and malpractice against authorities in Russia. In 2015, he accused Russia’s chief prosecutor, Yuri Chaika and his family for amassing property worth million dollars and having links with people accused of criminal offences.

Last year, he accused the deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov of spending £7 million in personal expenditures. However, in February this year he was found guilty of embezzlement which makes his protest against anti-corruption very contradictory. 

Assessment

Staging anti-corruption protests could be a significant move by Alexei Navalny to gain popularity to win the 2017 Presidential election. However, Putin has been in power for long, defeating him would not be easy given Putin also enjoys the majority support. At the same time, Nalvalny has gained prominence for detailed open source investigations of government corruption which has attracted the youth.

The Russian government needs to deal with the increasing corruption charges against the authorities as it could dilute the trust of the public from the government which was seen in the recent protest.