Are Russians Fighting Back Against Putin? — A Brief History of Protest in Russia in 2022

It’s reading break at McGill University, where I am completing my master’s degree, so I have a lot more time to devote to my blog — at least for the week.

I thought I would take this opportunity to write up a brief history of Russian protest against its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It’s been one year since the invasion, so it’s about time I analyzed this trajectory especially because many have put Russian opposition to the invasion into question.

There is opposition to the invasion in Russia — that’s clear enough. The question of whether there’s enough opposition is above this post. There’s always more that can be done. And civil disobedience is definitely not enough to dissuade Putin’s imperialism.

Here, I will simply go over some of the main events and how some Russians have positioned themselves against Putin and his enablers.

Photo by Valery Tenevoy on Unsplash

In 2022, Russia saw an uptick of protests against the government and President Vladimir Putin. These were primarily because of the war in Ukraine, but also because of the imprisonment of opposition figures such as Alexei Navalny.

In the years prior to the war, protests were sparked by a variety of issues, including the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic…