Russia: The End of the Illusion?

Faced with a growing budget deficit—$38.6 billion this fiscal year—the Kremlin has been racing to cut costs and raise revenue. But it has met with stiff resistance. Long-distance truckers, an essential part of the Russian economy, began protests against a new road tax in November. In early December they tied up traffic in Moscow, but were pushed back by police and have camped out ever since in improvised shelters outside the city. Now a major, ten-day strike of truckers from forty of the country’s regions is about to begin, and it is sure to cause major chaos. Significantly, the truckers have broadened their protests to include a range of economic issues. As one trucker put it: “For the outside, [Putin] is great for many … he’s sticking his nose into everything — Syria, Turkey — so good, so powerful, but in his own country, he can’t even talk to the people.”