[Marxism] Fwd: Russia: The End of the Illusion? by Amy Knight | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books

[Louis Proyect]

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.”

full: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/02/23/russia-end-of-illusion/