ORYOL, Russia – Oryol is located about 200 kilometers southwest of Moscow and is a world away from the bright lights and prosperity of the capital of Russia. Watch the tens of thousands of protesters marching across the country to protest the arrest of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
The industry in Oryol has never fully recovered from the collapse of Russia after Russia. Once proud factories sit deserted. Parts of the city do not have indoor toilets and running water. With few job prospects, many young people feel they have no choice but to leave.
The treatment of mr. Navalny may have ignited the fuse for protest marches, but the marches quickly became an outlet for Russia’s major complaints about declining living standards, the collapse of infrastructure and chronic corruption, and were a tectonic shift in relations between ordinary citizens and the Kremlin. .
“People are not going out to protest for someone, they are going out against something,” says 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 is happening here. ”
During much of President Vladimir Putin’s 20 years in power, oil prices were high and economic growth solid. Russian military interventions abroad have aroused national pride. And Russians have largely remained out of opposition politics and protests.