2011–2013 Russian protests

The 2011–2013 Russian protests, which some English language media referred to as the Snow Revolution , began in 2011 (as protests against the <a href="/facts/2011_Russian_legislative_election/HWCreIDa">2011 Russian legislative election</a> results) and continued into 2012 and 2013. The protests were motivated by claims of Russian and foreign journalists, political activists and members of the public that the election process was fraudulent. The <a href="/facts/Central_Election_Commission_of_Russia/DusQkuku">Central Election Commission of Russia</a> stated 11.5% of official reports of fraud could be confirmed as true.
On 10 December 2011, after a week of small-scale demonstrations, Russia saw some of the biggest protests in <a href="/facts/Moscow/XUU6VkdY">Moscow</a> since the 1990s. The focus of the protests were the ruling party, <a href="/facts/United_Russia/rEtXS4U1">United Russia</a>, and its leader <a href="/facts/Vladimir_Putin/DcQdxqbj">Vladimir Putin</a>, the prime minister and former president, who announced his intention to <a href="/facts/2012_Russian_presidential_election/00zN7aUm">run for president again in 2012</a>. Another round of large protests took place on 24 December 2011. These protests were named "For Fair Elections" (<a href="/facts/Russian_language/ETXrTgHV">Russian</a>: За честные выборы) and their organizers set up the movement of the same name. By this time, the "For Fair Elections" protesters had coalesced around five main points: freedom for <a href="/facts/Political_prisoners/QwWMH57J">political prisoners</a>; annulment of the election results; the resignation of <a href="/facts/Vladimir_Churov/IYnptbx1">Vladimir Churov</a> (head of the election commission) and the opening of an official investigation into vote fraud; registration of opposition parties and new democratic legislation on parties and elections; as well as new democratic and open elections.
Initial protest actions, organized by the leaders of the <a href="/facts/Opposition_to_Vladimir_Putin_in_Russia/IPxMg2Tq">Russian opposition parties</a> and <a href="/facts/Non-system_opposition/U0Lkgg2l">non-systemic opposition</a> sparked fear in some quarters of a <a href="/facts/Colour_revolution/GcHMUH62">colour revolution</a> in Russia, and a number of counter-protests and rallies in support of the government were held. On the first days following the election, Putin and United Russia were supported by rallies of two youth organizations, the government-organized <a href="/facts/Nashi_(youth_movement)/fCfJ6Xfh">Nashi</a> and United Russia's <a href="/facts/Young_Guard_of_United_Russia/mBbY9XNc">Young Guard</a>. On 24 December <a href="/facts/Sergey_Kurginyan/tvvj7oTr">Sergey Kurginyan</a> organised the first protest against what was viewed as "orange" protesters in Moscow, though the protest also went under the same slogan "For Fair Elections". On 4 February 2012, more protests and pro-government rallies were held throughout the country. The largest two events were in Moscow: the "anti-Orange protest" (alluding to the <a href="/facts/Orange_Revolution/GN0dSABv">Orange Revolution</a> in Ukraine, the most widely known color revolution to Russians), aimed against "orangism", "collapse of the country", "<a href="/facts/Perestroika/KvdmEalx">perestroika</a>" and "revolution", the largest protest action of all the protests so far according to the police; and another "For Fair Elections" protest, larger than the previous ones according to the police.
On 6 May 2012, protests took place in Moscow the day before Putin's inauguration as President for his third term. Some called for the inauguration to be scrapped. The protests were marred by violence between the protesters and the police. About 400 protesters were arrested, including <a href="/facts/Alexei_Navalny/wb73yyB3">Alexei Navalny</a>, <a href="/facts/Boris_Nemtsov/pR6wbW5n">Boris Nemtsov</a> and <a href="/facts/Sergei_Udaltsov/rcMYzstp">Sergei Udaltsov</a> and 80 were injured. On the day of the inauguration, 7 May, at least 120 protesters were arrested in Moscow. In June 2012, laws were enacted which set strict boundaries on protests and imposed heavy penalties for unauthorized actions. As of January 2013, interviews by <a href="/facts/Ellen_Barry_(journalist)/NrTCKpoH">Ellen Barry</a> of <a href="/facts/The_New_York_Times/T9marWVX">The New York Times</a> of working class elements which had supported the protests revealed an atmosphere of intimidation, discouragement, and alienation.

2011–2013 Russian protests open-in-new

2011–2013 Russian protests