Orange/Red Revolution

Troops strippin' zoots, shots of red mist,
Sailors blood on tha deck, come sista resist
From tha era of terror check this photo lens

That vulture came to try and steal ya name
But now you found a gun
You're history!

It's comin' back around again!
--RATM

I seem to recall that massive Russian political protests dominated the late 1800's and early 1900's, as well as the early nineties. While many have stated that the Russians are incapable of democracy (I think I have heard that line "they are incapable of democracy" a zillion times in the last year), they have institutional memories of resisting autocracy.

They just needed an awakening, courtesy of Kiev.

Were you wondering why Putin was all up in the face of Ukraine's elections? Here's why:

Public protests on the march in Russia

By Steven Lee Myers The New York Times
Saturday, February 12, 2005

MOSCOW A month ago a small crowd of elderly men and women briefly blocked the highway to Moscow's main international airport to protest changes in pension benefits. It was only the start. What has followed has revived something long considered dead, or at least dormant, in Russia: the public protest.
.
In Beslan, relatives of those killed in the siege of Middle School No. 1 last September blocked the main highway across the North Caucasus for three days in late January to protest the pace of the government's official investigation into the terrorist attack. On the island of Sakhalin in the Far East, ecologists joined and local villagers in blocking roads leading to new oil and gas projects to protest their effect on the environment and local tribal cultures.
.
In the last week alone, protesters representing liberal parties assembled near the Kremlin to protest the end of direct gubernatorial elections and in St. Petersburg to protest the exclusion of political opponents from the city's official television station. On Thursday transportation workers took to the street in both cities, as well as a dozen others, to rail against the rising cost of gasoline, among other issues.
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"There is calm before the storm, and it is the beginning of the storm," said Anatoly Zykov, a 55-year-old bus driver from the Moscow region who joined some 200 others outside the government headquarters known as the White House. "God forbid there should be bloodshed, but everyone is sick and tired."

Why let Kiev have all the revolutionary fun? Go to town, Moscow.

As history shows, political change in Moscow is usually accompanied by a classic showdown between autocratic Russian leaders and an angry public.

As a hardcore reformer who risked life and limb to go to bat for Russian democracy, you have to wonder what Yeltsin was thinking when he left Putin in control.