As we have seen from today’s news, some protests designed to coordinate with the St Petersburg Economic Forum have had more success than others.  Whilst a piece of libidinous graffiti has seemingly escaped the eye of the authorities, 100,000 copies of Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov’s joint-authored ‘Putin: Results.10 Years’, intended for distribution to the guests of the forum, have, according to RFE/RL, been seized by police.  Paul Goble on Eurasia Review provides a useful overview of the pamphlet’s contents:

First, the new book says, “corruption has reached catastrophic proportions,” with Russia according to Transparency International now ranked “among the most backward African countries.” Moreover, the two authors suggest, Putin’s associates have benefited from this with many of his oldest friends becoming “dollar billionaires.”

Second, during the Putin years, Nemtsov and Milov say, “Russia has been losing about 500,000 people annually, become of [factors like] extremely low life expectancies, super-high mortality from alcoholism [among working-age men], and a low level [and poor quality] of health care.”

Third, “over the ten years, Russia’s “dependency on the export of raw materials has only increased,” from 44 percent of all exports in 2000 to 65 percent now.
Fourth, the country’s road system, never good, has deteriorated further, with construction of new roads having been cut in half because of corruption.