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Kremlin Appears Unable to Curb Protest Wave

Jamie Dettmer

   MOSCOW - Arrests, the threat of long jail terms and the harassment of
   political and environmental activists doesn't appear to be having the
   desired effect for the Kremlin in deterring anti-government protests,
   according to a new study.

   In the first half of 2019 there were 863 protests and by year's end the
   total is likely to be in excess of 2,000 rallies-- most of them against
   the government and law-enforcement agencies or organized to complain
   about environmental degradation or benefit cuts.

   "There are fewer and fewer regions that aren't reporting protests,"
   says the study's author Anna Ochkina of the Moscow-based NGO the Center
   for Social and Labor Rights.

   Only two regions have so far remained largely unaffected this year by a
   wave of protest activity -- Chukotka, a far-flung north-eastern region
   which is mostly roadless, and Chechnya, which has been in the iron grip
   since 2005 of Ramzan Kadyrov, whose militias have been accused by
   rights groups of killings and kidnappings.

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