MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) - A Russian political analyst has argued that, despite its small size, a demonstration in the center of Moscow on Saturday meant that Russia's opposition is determined to pursue its cause.
"What we have been able to see today can be called a 'cadre division' of the opposition. In the armed forces, a cadre division means not an entire division but the command, commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers. So here as well, the protest opposition put forward its cadre division. They are members of the protest opposition who are prepared to turn out for demonstrations in any event," Alexei Makarkin vice president of the Political Technologies Center foundation, told Interfax.
Makarkin said there are two main reasons why Saturday's demonstration on Lubyanskaya Square in Moscow showed a relatively low turnout. "First of all, the event had not been authorized [by the city authorities]. And secondly, the protest activity is not at its highest at the moment," he said.
Saturday's frosty weather was "by no means the main factor," Makarkin said. "Let's remember the protest action of February 4, when there was harder frost than today. But that event was authorized, and the protest movement was more active as well," he said.