He said: “There is a real risk, if you are a man, if you go to a demonstration you have a good chance of being sent from that demonstration to the front.
‘Because they’ll find a way, ‘Oh, you haven’t done your military service before, or you’ve done your military service. So you’re useful to us.’ You can get anyone if you want.”
While the protests in Moscow and St Petersburg are relatively small, they probably represent a much larger percentage of the population. Because of the risk involved in protesting, many are probably too afraid to express their feelings.
Prof Duncan added: “So it’s not surprising then that there aren’t very many of them. What’s very clear is that so many people are willing to take the risk because they are undoubtedly just the tip of the iceberg of people who think so and worry about it.”
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