In the wake of the Pussy Riot verdict, Masha Lipman zooms in on the "minority of new Russians who are not willing to live by the old norms of fear and quiescence":
It is this minority that have joined the mass rallies in Moscow since December. They are the ones who gathered outside the courthouse [Friday] and chanted, “Free Pussy Riot!” and “Russia without Putin,” and erupted with “Pozor! Pozor!” (“Shame! Shame!”) each time the police took away yet another busload of protesters. In total, some fifty people were grabbed by the police outside the courthouse. Among them was Garry Kasparov, world chess champion turned political activist.
But they are still a minority: young Muscovites may rage and chant outside the courthouse, but over fifty per cent of Russians showed negative opinions of Pussy Riot in an August national poll; just over thirty per cent were non-negative—of these, most said they were indifferent, and only five per cent said they were sympathetic.
The Dish 