Protest sentiments and living standards of the population of Russia: a brief empirical analysis

The article provides an empirical analysis of the protest activity of the population of Russia, starting from the collapse of the USSR, the formation of independent states in the post-Soviet space and up to the present time (December 2021). With the exception of recent protests, all other actions had political subjectivity in the form of both right-wing and left-wing collective actors. At the same time all significant protests in modern Russia were well articulated, but, as a rule, were not supported by representatives in the federal or regional executive power. The author notes that the media coverage of the right-wing protests was minimal and exposed the protesters in a negative perspective (in state media). Media coverage of the left-wing protests was also minimal and predominantly neutral. The author attempts to analyze the protests in modern Russia empirically in relation to the standard of living and presents the fact that political protest in Russia can be both directly and inversely related to the standard of living of the population. At the same time, the direct link (the higher the standard of living, the higher the protest activity) usually reflects a protest based on the values of self-expression, and the feedback (the lower the standard of living, the higher the protest activity) reflects the protest based on the values of survival. Using the terminology of R. Inglehart and co-authors, which they used for the World Values Survey, we can conclude that the right-wing protests are based on the values of self-expression and the priority of the secular social order, while the left-wing protests are based on the values of survival and the priority of the traditional social order. The latter include the protests of the fall and winter of 2021. The article proposes systemic solutions that will allow effective work with the protest moods of the Russian population if the standard of living of Russian citizens will show a steady increase.