Word: kaliningrad
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...pivotal point came on Jan. 30, when an opposition rally in the western city of Kaliningrad attracted 10,000 people, an incredibly high turnout for Russia's docile political culture and likely the biggest protest in at least five years...
...people in Kaliningrad have a lot to be angry about. A hike in import duties has crushed one of the region's most vital industries: imports of used cars from Europe that are then sold in Russia. The end of that trade has put as many as 20,000 locals out of work. The price of utilities has jumped. On top of that, the unpopular governor, a Kremlin-appointed former tax minister from Moscow named Georgy Boos, levied a new tax on drivers. During the worst bout of unemployment and economic decline in a decade, reports of Boos' lavish vacations...
...weeks later, at his office in a Stalin-era high-rise in Moscow, Nemtsov is still beaming. A new strategy had come out of Kaliningrad, he says, and he seems restless to enact it. "We have to monitor the overall environment very carefully. We have to spot where protests are flaring up, and we have to act on that," he tells TIME. "At first it will be a mosaic. It will be fragmented ... But eventually the whole country will catch on." (See 10 things to do in Moscow...
...ultimate goal, Nemtsov says, is to organize a rally 10 times the size of Kaliningrad's in the center of the capital. And then what? "Well, after that, we'll have elections, and then we'll see who wins and who loses. But the point is, we have to get rid of Putin. He is dangerous," Nemtsov says. "I think this year is going to be the year of anti-Putin protests...
...According to Voitenko and other experts, a secret cargo could have been hidden on the ship during the two weeks it spent in Kaliningrad for repairs, just before it picked up its Finnish haul of timber. Not contiguous with the rest of Russia, Kaliningrad is the country's westernmost enclave on the coast of the Baltic Sea, and is known as a hub for Russian smugglers. "Personally, I don't care about any missiles," Voitenko tells TIME. "I care about what they're doing with those sailors...