‘Politically passive’, is how David Hearst from the Guardian describes the Russian protest movement, in an article in which he debunks comparisons between the Arab Spring and the Moscow demonstrations of the past two days.  Hearst discusses the idea of popular inertia with opposition figure Vladimir Rzyhkov:

‘What does he put this passivity down to? Communism, which destroyed Russian faith in each other, and consumerism which does roughly the same: “If there were a democratic force out there, it would already have made itself felt.”‘

Democracy Digest considers a new book by David Satter who also analyzes the imprint of the Communist past upon the consciousness of modern Russia.  He finds a historiographical deficit at the heart of the nation’s stuttering relationship with democracy.  Satter, however, draws a different conclusion on what we have witnessed erupt on the streets of Moscow: