As the videos I’m posting below show, the mood in Moscow has definitely soured since I last reported on the anti-Kremlin demonstrations there in 2007-8. Back then, anti-Kremlin democracy protests were still confined to a smaller sliver of the population, although even at that time, as I wrote, there were early signs that discontent was starting to take root among Moscow’s student intelligentsia. That’s always a sign of danger to come for Russian regimes.

Yesterday, former eXile columnist Edward Limonov was detained as he got out of his car to lead a protest against the fraud-riddled elections.

And Monday night Moscow time, the protests against election fraud swelled in size to as high as 10,000+ according to some reports I’ve read, overwhelmingly young students and post-Communist Russians in their 20’s and 30’s. Watching this video, shot near the Kremlin, makes it clear that a tipping point has been reached in Moscow: Discontent over living under oligarchical rule is spilling into the open. It’s no longer enough to be “better off than under Yeltsin”–Russia’s youth wants more democracy, more people power, and more justice. The idea is spreading in Moscow, and this has got to make Putin and the Kremlin nervous:

And here is more from Moscow’s demonstrations, the largest seen in the Putin era:

Update: For a broader perspective on the history of election fraud in Russia, including Western active complicity in mass election fraud and oligarchy-creation to ensure the re-election of their man Boris Yeltsin in 1996, read “Who Killed The OSCE? Ex-OSCE Mission Chief Reveals ‘Pressure’ To Whitewash 1996 Election” by Alexander Zaitchik and Mark Ames, published in The eXile on November 30, 2007. Also read “Kremlin Public Enemy No. 1” by Edward Limonov about trying to march for democracy without getting pinched, published in The eXile on May 4, 2007.