At last some sense on Russian protests

Prof. Stephen Cohen has a good pedigree as an academic and expert on Russian history, and brings a perpective on Russian events that is  rarely heard.

Stephen Cohen on Russian Protests

Democracy Now!


Allegations of widespread fraud in the recent elections that gave Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party a parliamentary majority have galvanized massive street protests in opposition to the Russian political establishment. 

This comes on the 20th year anniversary of the breakup of the Soviet Union. 

"The reason that the people that control the financial oligarchy of Russia don't want free elections, is they know that ... the people would vote for candidates pledging to confiscate their property," which was privatized in the 1990s, says Stephen Cohen, professor of Russian studies at New York University. 

He notes "these elections were not free and fair, but they were the freest and fairest and 15 years," and that members of the country's middle class make up the bulk of the protesters.

Cohen also argues the American media has failed to report on the resurgence of the Communist Party, supported mainly by working class voters in Russia's vast provinces, which could challenge Putin in the 2012 presidential race and force a run-off election. 

His most recent book is titled, "Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War." His latest article, "The Soviet Union's Afterlife," appears in the new issue of The Nation magazine.