When wide scale protests over wage arrears broke out in the town of Pikalyovo, near St. Petersburg, this past June, Vladimir Putin leaped into action to put out the fire.  He toured the factories, met with protest leaders, called the Kremlin-loyal business magnate Oleg Deripaska a “greedy cockroach,” and then offered to solve all the problems directly with funds out of the state budget.  Someone even made a spoof song about Putin’s macho image and the rescuing of Pikalyovo (“Putin, Putin goes to Pikalyovo. Putin, Putin will make it cool for us,” the Russian lyrics say as a bearded man in a suit gyrates. “Putin, Putin is quick to do justice. Putin, Putin is our Prime Minister.”)

It is hard to object to a social bailout like this, especially after watching billions get thrown into the oligarch rescue plan, but there are some potential problems going forward.  We interviewed the blogger and analyst Paul Goble on this subject some time ago, and like some other observers, he pointed out that the government’s handling of Pikalyovo demonstrated something to all other struggling one-industry towns in Russia:  if you make enough noise, the Kremlin will  cave in and come running to pick up the tab.  In other words, it sets a difficult precedent to keep up with.

Case in point, it appears that the Pikalyovo virus may be spreading, as the Financial Times is carrying news of some 2,000 AvtoVAZ workers are protesting wage cuts and firings at the country’s largest plant in Tolyatti on the Volga river.