Has Putin Met His Match In Russia's Truck Drivers?

Russia’s long-haul truck drivers have disrupted the country’s federal highways for more than two weeks to protest a new road tax (platon in Russian) collected (with a 20% commission) by the Putin-associated Rotenberg oligarchs. The protesters threatened a full blockade of Moscow today unless their demands for a radical restructuring of the government are met. Russia’s riot and traffic police have not been able to halt the convoys, and the Russian government has refused good-faith talks. Putin’s propaganda machine cannot brand three million ordinary citizens as traitors and CIA agents. It can only saturate the news with the “outrage” of Turkey shooting down its fighter jet. The Kremlin is threatened with its own version of a nationwide Maidan.

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