When people ask why Russians don't protest---

[jgmiller]

28. I think it's part of the Russian psyche too

I may be way off base here but for decades Russian's suffered under soviet rule and before that oppressive Tsarist rule. When the USSR fell they had freedom for the most part even in politics but the political freedom really didn't last that long. Not long enough to shake off what had amounted to hundreds of years of being used to not having any political freedom.

The genius of what Putin has done is that for the average Russian he has maintained their individual freedoms, they can travel, they have full access to the Internet, they can choose their own jobs, they can buy things from anywhere, they can save money. They can even start businesses. For most people in any country that means total freedom and many people just ignore politics and other things and if they aren't criminals they never run afoul of the law.

It's very hard to create a massive uprising against the ruling political class if the masses don't feel overly oppressed.