The Worse Is Yet to Come for Russia

The month of March ended very badly for Russia, and the worst is yet to come.

On March 20, the opposition tried to organize its “Day of Wrath” under the slogan “Putin must go!” but it failed to convince or inspire. Attendance at rallies was sparse nationwide. The intelligentsia have yet to defines themselves in post-Soviet Russia, failing to define their own new role and what the new Russia can and should be.

The two suicide bombings in Moscow on March 29 were unfortunate for a number of reasons. The self-styled emir of the Caucasus Emirate, Doku Umarov, shares a fixation on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with the opposition. He calls Putin a “terrorist” and the Federal Security Service a “criminal organization.” The bombing of the Lubyanka metro station was meant to avenge and taunt.