Russian Liberals Growing Uneasy With Alliances

MOSCOW — About two and a half hours into a recent strategy session of Russia’s new protest movement, someone raised the question that could tear apart the crazy-quilt alliance opposing Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s power.

“I’d like to ask on what basis extreme nationalists and ultra-right-wing groups are allowed to participate in this civic movement,” said Aleksandr Bikbov, a mop-haired and bespectacled sociologist. “Especially,” he added, “if they shout antidemocratic slogans like ‘Russia for ethnic Russians’ from the stage.”

Before he could make his case, Mr. Bikbov was drowned out by a mixture of applause and boos, prompting the moderator to remove his question from the discussion. One audience member called him a “liberal fascist.”
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How much influence nationalists will come to exert on the new protest movement is unclear. In their balaclavas and combat boots, they were clearly the black sheep at two huge anti-Kremlin protests in December, where their vocal denunciations of immigrants and calls for ethnic purity were often drowned out by chants of “Fascism will not pass!”

But it is clear that they have become a force in Russia that is politically perilous to ignore. Long before protests became fashionable among members of Russia’s urban middle class, who turned out in droves for the December demonstrations, nationalists had the monopoly on street theater, organizing protests that drew thousands.

Moreover, their ideas have a following that extends beyond the office buildings and hipster cafes of Moscow and into the more conservative Russian heartland, where the success or failure of the protest movement could be decided.