Can the democratic spring spread to Russia?

Whilst much of Western Europe has been focused on the European Union Summit, in the East, democracy is stirring.

In Russia, after some years of retreating from democracy, - with the curtailment of a free press and the weakening of the rule of law - something quite incredible is happening.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (former President and likely to be next President), once lauded, has been jeered at in public events - something unthinkable, even a few months ago. The recent Parliamentary Elections, are widely regarded to have been fixed in favour of the ruling regime.

Now there are demonstration on the streets, in major city across Russia. Mr Putin faces the first real challenge to his rule.

I studied my postgraduate degree in Russian politics - straight after the failed coup in 1991 against Gorbachev. At the time many hoped that with Boris Yeltsin, real democracy was coming to Russia, to displace the totalitarian Soviet Socialist Republic. Sadly, the political forces against liberalisation were immense: the failures of Yeltsin and the corruption of the old Communist Party elite, led to the KGB (now known as the FSB) gradually reasserting control - through Putin's de facto coup d'etat against Yeltsin in December 1999.

Could the recent overthrowal of tyrants across the Middle East be the catalyst for Russian democracy? Can it finally be the end of Kremlin authoritarianism? Let us hope so: one thing is certain. The Russian people face very difficult times ahead.

P.S. You can read more here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8948495/Russia-election-protests-tens-of-thousands-gather-for-biggest-demonstration-since-fall-of-USSR.html