Legitimacy of an illegitimate regime

[CCIP]

I've been (obviously) following some of the opposition blogosphere, and what my relatives in Russia have been up to. One interesting observation that several have made - since yesterday, Russian online queries for "immigration to Canada", "immigration to US", "immigration to Australia" and other Western countries have increased to about twice the level they are normally at. Hardly a surprise - there are a lot of disappointed people there right now, and many people who frankly feel threatened. Reminds me of exactly why I'm not there with them...

My grandmother in St. Petersburg volunteered to be a poll observer on behalf of an opposition party, and was actually turned away because they had more people volunteering than they knew what to do with. If nothing else, that's certainly a positive sign - it's safe to say that over the last few months, Russians have 'cared' and have certainly been more incensed over the situation than they have been in almost 20 years. While powerless to do much about it right now, the fact that there is such vocal discontent is encouraging. There is, finally, an awakening of civic consciousness in Russia - something that's been more or less asleep since the early 90s. They'll keep doing what they can. Marches and rallies are scheduled throughout the week, and I think the turnouts will be pretty serious indeed.

[Stealhead]

Putin was popular for some time he did many things that a lot of Russians liked(or perhaps a few years back fewer Russians where willing to express their feelings) now though it seems many tire of his ways it has become more obvious that he is more or less a tyrant.It is always a little fishy when most every major party in a nation "endorses" the same guy that would be like the GOP and Dems here is the US backing the same candidate.