The rise in nationalist sentiment since the 2008 financial crisis should gather pace if economic conditions worsen in Russia, which relies heavily on oil and gas revenue, said Nikolai Petrov, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “This is the tip of the iceberg,” he added. “The Kremlin is worried that nationalist sentiment will become uncontrollable.”
Thousands of nationalists marched through Moscow on Sunday chanting slogans such as “Russia for the Russians” to protest President Vladimir Putin’s government, which they accuse of lavishing privileges on migrants and minorities while ignoring ethnic Russians.
The anti-Kremlin tone of the nationalists, who once backed Putin, comes as the movement’s leaders try to broaden their base in the wake of last winter’s historic opposition protests against the Russian leader. Some nationalists are even denouncing violence and racism, moves many mainstream opposition activists view with suspicion.
Sunday’s march took place on Unity Day, a national holiday established in 2005 to replace commemorations of the Bolshevik Revolution. It has become associated with the nationalist “Russian March,” which has taken a stridently anti-Kremlin tone. More than 40 Russian Marches were held throughout the country during the day.
Putin marked Unity Day by laying flowers at a monument in Red Square commemorating the expulsion of Polish-Lithuanian occupiers from the Kremlin 400 years ago in 1612. It was his first public appearance since speculation about his health rose sharply last week. Putin walked slowly but without assistance, and his condition was unclear. His spokesman has said he has pulled a muscle but has denied it occurred during a widely publicized September flight in a motorized hang-glider.
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