Will Navalny Attack Spur Russia's Protest Vote?
Regional and local elections are usually dull affairs. Not this year.
Protesters don’t always have to take to the streets.
Photographer: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
Regional elections are often dull and predictable. Unfortunately for President Vladimir Putin, the ones in Russia will be neither on Sunday, when the world’s largest country goes to the polls. The dramatic poisoning of opposition campaigner Alexey Navalny adds to a string of events that will make it harder than ever for the Kremlin to guarantee its desired results.
A dress rehearsal for national parliamentary elections due next year, this was never going to be a straightforward set of races. Russia’s economy is expected to contract some 4% this year, hurt by the pandemic and an oil crisis. Households are in pain. Anti-government demonstrations have persisted in Khabarovsk, on the Chinese border, and there’s evidence of discontent elsewhere. Finally, there’s the challenge to power in neighboring Belarus, where marches have not abated.