Organizers of nationwide rallies against a proposed NATO transit hub in Russia promised that up to two million Russians would show up, but the actual turnout Saturday turned out to be several orders of magnitude below that. About 2,000 protested in Moscow's Pushkin Square, with another 800 in Ulyanovsk, the Volga River city where the transit hub would be located, and small smatterings elsewhere in Russia.
What small opportunity these protests had of taking advantage of the new vulnerability of the Kremlin in the wake of big anti-government protests over the recent elections was probably quashed by the fact that they are led by the Communist Party, whose head, Gennady Zyuganov, was the main speaker at the Moscow rally. Zyuganov opened his remarks by mentioning that it was the 70th anniversary of the birth of ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, whom Zyuganov lionized as "the first in Europe to revolt against NATO." He said that this would be the first time in 1,000 years of Russian history that a foreign military base would be established in Russia, and that it would make Ulyanovsk into a center of drug trafficking in Russia.
For what it's worth, Russian officials have taken pains to emphasize that what is proposed at Ulyanovsk is not a "base," and will host no NATO personnel.
Never mind: Zyuganov said more rallies against the base/transit hub will be held April 21, the eve of Lenin's birthday.
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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