In my earlier post today, I wrote that Vladimir Putin’s popularity with the people of Russia is suffering and their support for his seemingly endless war against Ukraine is “waning.” That may actually have been something of an understatement.
As it turns out, I seem to have miscalculated the level of dissatisfaction of the Russian populace. Because over the weekend, the Kremlin-friendly Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) organized a rally, joined by some 6,000 demonstrators including members of the liberal, anti-war Yabloko Party . . . the opposition party that was denied authorization to run in the recent Parliamentary elections.
The bipartisan rally was being held to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the 1993 constitutional crisis that ended in the shelling of the Parliament, on the orders of then-president Boris Yeltsin, to quell the resistance to his reforms being staged by a cadre of Soviet-era hard-liners. Known as the “Black October” uprising, it resulted in the deaths of 147 people and hundreds of injuries.
At this week’s rally, everything was fine until near the end. According to the Pravda news service, as some of Sunday’s demonstrators began chanting “Freedom for political prisoners,” “For fair elections,” and “Down with the Tsar,” police charged in and arrested some 60 people, of whom 26 were reportedly from the Communist Party, and another 30 from Yabloko. [Harry Thompson, Daily Beast, October 5, 2026.]
The Associated Press has reported that the KPRF says it is working to obtain the release of those arrested. [Id.]
Such demonstrations of opposition are rare in Russia, and are invariably met with police action. This has been especially true since the loss of the popular dissident Aleksei Navalny, and the increase in arrests of journalists and others who dare to speak out against Putin or his war.
So what prompted this one? Is it a one-off, or the start of a larger movement? Will it fizzle out, or build momentum to present a serious challenge to Putin’s iron-fisted rule?
Obviously, I don’t have the answers. I don’t think Putin will be going anywhere soon, or that a full-blown revolution in Russia is imminent. But, as history is so fond of proving, anything is possible.
Just sayin’ . . .
Brendochka
10/6/26
