Russia is currently undergoing some serious challenges to its “one-party democracy,” as protests have rocked the nation’s traditional power structure. Since December, protesters have rallied against the dominance of Vladimir Putin and his party, United Russia. The Russian legislative elections of 2011, which were widely-perceived as fraudulent, served as a catalyst for this movement which some have called Russia’s answer to the Arab Spring. Demonstrations are still going on to this day, and Russia’s future remains uncertain.

The Chronicle interviewed Weinberg Junior Reka Forgach about her experience joining a protest rally in Moscow last December. She studied abroad in St. Petersburg for 4 months as part of the American Council of Teaching Russian’s Russian Language and Area Studies Program (or ACTR’s RLASP- as Reka noted during the interview, it’s Russia, so overwrought acronyms are highly encouraged).

Here is the interview. Enjoy, comrades!

What was the atmosphere like at the protests?

The protest I went to in Moscow, probably the biggest one I was able to attend, was sanctioned.  So since it was legally allowed by the government, the atmosphere was pretty calm.  People chanted in response as they were supposed to, but to be honest the atmosphere was closer to a Hilary Clinton rally than anything else.  The unsanctioned protests in Petersburg were of course much more turbulent (as was the immediate protest in Moscow following the election results, which  I wasn’t able to attend)  as the police intervened and were hustling people off in vans at random.  I’d say the feeling there was more of solidarity, surprise at the sudden solidarity, and finally a sort of steel resolve.

Describe the most memorable thing you witnessed during the protests…was there any police brutality?

Again, I wasn’t in the “front lines” during any police brutality.  I wil lsay that prior to the protest in Moscow at least 150 armed police car rolled in, Red Square and Revolutionary square (where the protests were supposed to be held) were cleared and barred off “for renovation purposes”, police lined the entire main street and legions (not sure of the correct word here, but they were about 4×7) were marching around, it was all quite menacing, and then as I mentioned nothing came of it.  In Petersburg in the first couple of days there was a lot of hauling people off.  And in both cities police were being called in from other parts of the country days ahead of time.

Did you hear any interesting stories from the protesters themselves? Were there any non-Russians out there like you?

The protesters were mainly Russian, I only had the chance to meet one other foreigner who was German and manning a TV camera.  Unfortunately no insane firsthand accounts, the Russian public is incredibly split about the matter.  For example, my speaking practice professor who is very active in protests and against the current government attended a protest and ended up getting in a fight and splitting a knuckle.  Interestingly enough, he got into the tussle with a skinhead, and on internet blog sites it’s pretty accepted that the government turns a blind eye towards violent skinheads (of which there are a good number) at these meetings, in order to have a valid excuse as to why the police should intervene after trouble starts.  On the other hand, many Russians fear a repeat of Libya or any other senseless and violent revolution, I think this marks the very real and brutal presence the government and the police both continue to enjoy from the Russian civilian’s eyes.

In your opinion, do you think the Russian protests will change anything (or is Russia just doomed to perennial authoritarian rule)?

I am currently flip flopping quite a bit about this.  I am confident that in any event, Putin will not go so far as to bluntly and heavy handedly put a stop to these protests.  His image is already too precarious and the past weeks of ongoing protests have shown that he probably will not choose to repeat the harsh measures of his forebears.  However, has quite cunningly engineered the way the system works so that to be honest there is no real current alternative to United Russia [Putin’s Party].  As such, the people can protest all they want, even if they get a new election there is practically no way that they can actually achieve change.  Prokhorov is accepted as a puppet party put up by the Kremlin in order to make a show of democracy, the second largest party in Russia is the Communist Party and is slowly on the decline, and all other parties either lack the seats, money, or followers to create real opposition.

So, in short, I think the protests, given they will even keep going with such emotion and determination (the extent of which, living in a rather apolitical russia up to this time, has suprised me) will achieve, perhaps, some token changes like during Czar Nicholas II’s reign, however to see a change to Putin’s and Edinaya Rossiya’s rule will take much, much more than these protests. As a final note, though it is within Russia’s culture to gravitate towards strong, paternal and authoritarian power, I think, as with everything in Russia, they will slowly but surely evolve and achieve a sort of level democracy equal to those we see in the West.

Featured photo by Leonid Faerberg, in-article photo by Bogomolov.PL

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