ORYOL, Russia – About 200 miles southwest of Moscow, Oryol is a world away from the bright lights and prosperity of Russia’s capital. To understand the tens of thousands of protesters who have rallied across the country to protest the detention of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, look here.
The Oryol industry never fully recovered after Russia’s post-Soviet collapse. The once proud factories are abandoned. Part of the city does not have indoor toilets and running water. With few job prospects, many young people feel they have no choice but to leave.
Mr Navalny’s treatment could have ignited security for the protests, but the rallies quickly became a way out of the Russians’ widespread dissatisfaction with declining living standards, the collapse of infrastructure and chronic corruption, and mark a tectonic shift in relations between ordinary and ordinary citizens. . .
“People don’t go out to protest for someone, they oppose something,” said Artyom Prokhorov, a marketing manager in Oryol who shares a two-bedroom apartment with his ex-wife and their two children. “Navalny simply served as a trigger. People are tired of what’s going on here. ”
For much of Vladimir Putin’s 20-year presidency, oil prices have risen and economic growth has been solid. Russian military interventions abroad have aroused national pride. And the Russians have largely stayed out of opposition policies and protests.