During their generally friendly meeting on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin traded barbs about how their respective countries treat political protesters. The exchange should be instructive to those who buy and spread the Kremlin propaganda's argument that the violence unleashed on Moscow protesters in recent weeks is somehow justified by France’s tough response to the Yellow Vests. I must start with a disclaimer: I consider the suppression of protests in both countries to be disproportionate. I don’t buy the argument that the Yellow Vests deserved tougher treatment than the Moscow protesters because they were more violent. Obviously, there are limits to what authorities can tolerate if they are to protect the lives and property of other citizens and defend the rule of law. But violence is a vicious circle: “Who started it?” usually isn't a smart question to ask. There is, though, a fundamental difference between the French and the Russian responses which I think neither Putin nor Macron quite understands.

In France, Putin made his first public comments on the protests that were triggered by the authorities’ refusal to allow anti-Kremlin candidates to take part in next month’s municipal election in Moscow. His comments were hardly surprising: The rejected candidates should take their grievances to the courts and no one has the right to break the law by provoking mass disturbances. One could hardly expect Putin, famous for never retreating under pressure, to say anything else. But then he added: I’m a guest here and I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but I’m forced to say it because you’re asking such questions. We all know the events that had to do with the so-called Yellow Vests, during which, by our calculation, 11 people died and 2,500 were injured, including 2,000 police. We wouldn’t like similar events to take place in the Russian capital, and we’ll do everything to keep our domestic political situation strictly within the framework of existing law. Putin's statistics were questionable: While 11 deaths have been attributed to the Yellow Vest protests, many more were wounded than 2,500 — and the majority of them were demonstrators, not police. But Macron ignored this when he retorted: In France, those who demonstrate are able to freely take part in elections. The Yellow Vests were free to participate in the European elections and will go to the local elections. That, of course, should have been a killer rejoinder, but it didn’t quite work as such. The Yellow Vests failed miserably in the European election in May. The essentially leaderless movement was too disunited and politically inexperienced to get anywhere. It produced two lists of candidates, neither of which garnered even 1% of the vote. A complex political system like France’s is difficult for outsiders to penetrate. Macron and his fellow party members are of the elite, and, unlike the Yellow Vests, know how to play the game. Unable to create a powerful political force of their own, 44% of Yellow Vest supporters took their protest votes to the far right National Rally party, according to a poll published just before the election. The National Rally came first in the ballot, but its nationalist agenda doesn’t really help the Yellow Vests’ mainly economic demands. The causes of the two protests are essentially similar: France’s poor and Moscow’s educated class feel they are unable to play successfully by the existing rules because their voices aren’t being heard. One could argue that the Yellow Vests’ agenda is all about resentment coming from people left behind by progress, while educated Muscovites are trying to move their country forward; but that kind of difference shouldn’t matter when it comes to democratic representation.

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