Something Is Happening and You Don’t Know What It Is. Do You, Mr. Putin?

It is obviously too early to know what the result of the demonstrations in Russia following the fraudulent election will be, but it is late enough to know that something significant is happening there. It is possible that these protests will be violently dispersed, that they will lead to some liberalization of the regime, set processes in motion that will lead to the collapse of the regime or simply whither away as Moscow’s harsh winter settles in. Even if the protests lose their momentum or end violently, they will have marked a change in the way Putin’s regime in Russia functions. The sheen not just of invulnerability, but also of being efficient and insulated from all criticism, has been removed; and the world has seen that.