“…Given the current fundamentally different circumstances, is it well justified to rely on the Russian opposition when dealing with Putin’s Russia? Should we continue engaging it in the stand against the regime or we’d better cut off funding and supporting it?
– I believe there could be one answer to all of your questions. There is no truly effective opposition in Russia today! Yet, everything is not as simple as that and we still keep our doors open…”
Press conference of the U.S. Senator for Maryland Ben Cardin.

Well, isn’t it breaking? There happens to be no opposition in Russia! Or to be more exact, there is, but it’s rather poor, spineless, toothless and outright useless. You simply cannot single anyone out and call him a leader! The People’s Freedom Party of Mr. Kasyanov, The Progress Party of Mr. Navalny, The Democratic Choice of Mr. Milov – the titles and names are different while the essence is the same – half-criminal shady deals, undisguised hatred of their own people, commitment to fight for anything so long as it is paid for: today they fight against an abstract ‘putin’ for the money of American funds, tomorrow they set upon each other on request of private investors. Internal ideology of the opposition is in chaos altogether – human rights, corruption, ‘annexation’ of Crimea, the housing and public utilities reform, highway construction, ‘aggression’ in Syria, personal ambition, business, grants… The devil himself can’t figure it out who is with whom, why and most importantly – what for.
However there are sometimes traces not of life but of some showcase activity just like an incriminating report about Mr. Kadyrov uploaded in the web, or yet another anti-regime rally of a dozen people which gathers more bystanders than participants. Looks like they haven’t yet spent all the sponsors’ money, although judging by the ‘magnitude’ of the latest revolutionary parties their best days are far gone.