What will happen if Navalny is imprisoned?

Does anyone know the line between soft authoritarianism and full-fledged dictatorship? How will we define it for ourselves? Otherwise, we may not even notice how it came. Just a few months ago it seemed impossible that the inferior Duma, falsified by Edros, would, no matter what, churn out some idiotic laws divorced from life (from slander and rallies to NGOs and the Internet). If Sobchak had been told in December that in June she would be searched and all her hard-earned money would be taken away, then Ksenia would have laughed and sent this man away, and now she is making humorous commercials in response. If I had been told on May 6, when I was walking along Yakimanka, that 12 people walking next to me would be in prison a month later, it’s not a fact that I would have returned to Russia after the summer vacation (just kidding).

In short, no matter how cynical it sounds, I propose to use Navalny as a guinea pig and a litmus test. After all, who is NePutin today? Not Putin is Navalny - every second person will tell you. Since Alexey is at the forefront of the political process, then it is necessary to determine the actions towards him: if he goes to jail, that’s it, dictatorship, if he doesn’t go to jail, it’s soft authoritarianism, we continue to cheat each other on social networks.

But seriously, many normal people are depressed and don’t know what to do. I’ve read several smart articles here where liberal intellectuals say that in the fall other people will be added to the protest of the creative class - already for economic reasons (such as the growth of housing and communal services, fines, actions, etc.). How do you have to not know your people to assume such nonsense? No one will go anywhere for economic reasons (at least this year). And whether the protest movement needs people coming out for economic reasons is still a big question... So what to do?

It seems to me that, at a minimum, we need to very seriously prepare for a mass protest in Moscow in the fall. The fact is that the number of people who understand everything and are furious is disproportionately greater than those who go to protests. Some people don’t go out because they’re just too lazy, some are annoyed by characters like Nemtsov and Kasyanov, some don’t like nationalists and Udaltsov, the older generation does not hide their irritation towards the former host of House-2 and even towards Navalny ( !!!) have questions))). What can I say, by August the protest movement will be nine months old - during this period a child is born, and the opposition has not been able to significantly increase the number of protesters, despite desperate help from the senile authorities. In short, if there is no increase in the number of protesters (not for economic, but for moral reasons), then the authorities will not have any motives or incentives to change their policies.

Every day, after reading Twitter, LiveJournal and Facebook, you sit in negativity and think - why are we living like freaks, there are so many normal people. And when 90% of these people do not come to the next protest, you understand - because there are so many smart people in the country per unit of population! If there were fewer smart people, it would be easier to agree on something...