Russia’s opposition has been cowed, killed or forced into exile, parliament is servile and the media largely toothless.

But despite overwhelming apathy in parliamentary elections, at the grassroots level Russians from across the socioeconomic spectrum have been quietly challenging the authorities – and these challenges have become increasingly hard to suppress.

From environmental campaigners holding companies accountable for oil spills to campaigns against local taxes, activists preserving parks and residents taking control of their housing, local activism is gathering strength and momentum.

Such movements may be normal for most democracy, but in Russia they are unprecedented.

The development should be understood as a reaction to the policies of the president, Vladimir Putin, which have consistently prioritised the interests of business elites over the needs of society. And as those business elites are hit by the financial crash, they are increasingly trying to squeeze more money from Russian citizens.

One of most significant victories for community-based action was a countrywide strike organised by long-haul truck drivers against a proposed increase in road tolls. The truck tax system, known as Platon, is being operated by the son of oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, a close friend of Putin.

The 10-day action was unusual, and effective, because the people who took part came from Putin’s support base.

And while the payments weren’t abolished, the tolls were reduced significantly and the truckers have gone on to lend their name to other civil protests, including a protest convoy made up of famers from the Kuban region outraged that their land had been illegally confiscated.

Under Putin there has also been a gradual erosion of trust in the authorities to protect their rights, but one positive consequence is that citizens have mobilised to plug the gaps.

In 2010 the government was criticised for failing to put out forest fires that swept through the central and western regions of the country which left at least 50 people dead.

As residents were chocking on smog it emerged that authorities were actively felling the trees in a protected area of the Khimki forest near Moscow and were placing their efforts on dispersing protesters, not putting out the flames across the country.

And in some cases residents do not just perceive the authorities useless, they actively fear them. According to a poll by Russian newspaper Vedomosti 44% of Muscovites, 34% in Dagestan and 27% in the Leningrad region believed the police were an active threat.



In Moscow environmental activists campaigning to protect green spaces from development have faced violence from the police and private security contractors.

In April private security guards were accused of attacking women and children who had joined a protest to protect trees in Dubki park. When the police turned up they arrested 15 of the most active protesters, but left the private contractors alone.

For the first time in history we are seeing angry Muscovites not just collecting signatures online but risking their lives and safety to take a stand.

The growing strength of these civil movements means we can no longer say that Russian citizens are passive; they just don’t vote in elections because they don’t think their vote will change anything.



But as the government continues to crack down on the independent NGOs that traditionally support grassroots movements the road ahead will not be smooth.

Activists need to keep promoting the idea that citizens can no longer rely on the state to fix their problems; they need to keep fighting attempts by the government to smear them in the press and they must continue to encourage their fellow campaigner to local government positions, as three Khimki activists did successfully this September.

It would then be possible for these grassroots groups to become the network that the Russian society can rely on, not a centralised state that only has the interests of the elites at heart.



Translated by Svetlana Graudt

