Internet Activism Increases in Russia

The recent opposition rallies in Moscow, like their counterparts in the Arab world last year, grew suddenly and unexpectedly from chatter over social networks. But they also showed the power of the Internet to raise money for anti-Kremlin causes.

Four days after an appeal went out on Facebook and other networks, organizers had raised four million rubles, about $129,000, through a Russian online-payment system. Not much by Western standards, it was a princely sum for Russia, more than enough to finance what on Dec. 24 became the country's largest antigovernment demonstration in two decades. The money paid for a stage, a sound system, video screens and portable toilets, leaving a one-million-ruble surplus to spend on the next challenge to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -- a planned march in Moscow on Feb. 4, a month before he runs in presidential elections.