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 …read more
Source:: Voice of America
