Navalny is depicted here as the enemy of the state, waiting in the shadows for a Bolshevik-style coup d’état. It is interesting that here it is not a member of a supposed populist movement, who is accusing the elite of being out of touch with “the people,” but a member of the elite who is accusing the leader of the “non-systemic” opposition of this fact. A complete inversion of the roles. Populism is clearly the new specter, which is haunting the Kremlin. In February 2017 another prominent Russian think tank, Minchenko Hosting, hosted a two-day seminar for analysts and politicians, titled “Elections, Victory and Big data: Win Like Trump and Putin.” One of the topics was “How to Neutralize the Populist Wave: Strategies of Protection for the ‘Ruling Party’.” Will the Kremlin’s strategy work? Will it be able to produce its own fake populism to counter the supposed populism of Navalny’s opposition? The Kremlin has good reason to be concerned about its ability to cope with a restive populace. Already former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has predicted an increase in local conflicts for social reasons that could spill over to the federal level.

A flash mob on Red Square as the ultimate nightmare for the Kremlin? It is clear that Putin’s regime has not forgotten the mass protests of 2011–12. After Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012 increased repression successfully quelled protests. But it is clear that a new Internet-savvy generation is proving increasingly restless about the state of Russian politics.

Marcel H. Van Herpen is director of the Cicero Foundation and a Russia expert. His latest books include Putin’s Propaganda Machine—Soft Power and Russian Foreign Policy; Putin’s Wars—The Rise of Russia’s New Imperialism; and Putinism—The Slow Rise of a Radical Right Regime in Russia.

Image: Protesters walk past an officer of the Russian National Guard during a rally against pension reforms, which envisage raising the retirement age, in St. Petersburg, Russia September 16, 2018. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov