Protest meetings and outdoor demonstrations draw their biggest crowds when day-to-day living does not take up all one's time and, of course, when the weather is good. The thousands who turned out to support Russia's independent NTV station in the driving rain in Moscow were, therefore, especially motivated and determined. In Russia in recent years the climate has not been conducive to large public meetings. The energies of most citizens have been concentrated on the everyday task of making ends meet, on making a living in a country whose economy approached melt-down in 1998 and on the traditional Russian practice of keeping one's head down at times of political and economic crisis.
There have been moments of relief from this drudgery. One of the most striking has been an NTV series called Kukly, Russia's answer to the British "Spitting Image". Political leaders have been portrayed through life-sized puppets at times with devastating satire. Mr Yeltsin was shown inebriated when other channels failed even to mention that the then president might occasionally have been fond of a drop. In time Kukly turned its attention to President Vladimir Putin. By all accounts Mr Putin did not like what he saw. Masked law-enforcement agents raided the company's headquarters and NTV's owner, Mr Vladimir Gusinsky, was arrested and imprisoned for suspected fraud. Having been released with all charges dropped he is now in Spain facing extradition on the same charges which have been re-instated.
Today's Russia houses many leading businessmen and politicians against whom fraud charges could be laid but who have not been subjected to the rigour of the Russian legal system in the way Mr Gusinsky has. Mr Pavel Borodin, once a close associate of Mr Putin, faced no charges in Russia but was arrested in the United States and extradited to Switzerland for alleged fraud and money laundering.
NTV, alone of Russia's major TV channels, opposed Mr Putin in the presidential campaign last year. It has now been taken over by Gazprom, a vast natural gas company with strong connections to the current administration. All media opposition to Mr Putin is now, conveniently, in the process of being purged. It was against the Gazprom takeover that thousands demonstrated in Moscow on Saturday and in St Petersburg yesterday. Russians have had a hard struggle to gain freedom of expression and they have shown they are prepared to demonstrate to retain that freedom.
Whether or not they will be victorious is another question. There are already signs of a major rift among the NTV journalists who are opposing the takeover. Personal rivalries, long a major problem in media circles east and west, are beginning to show through the cracks. In the wings waits Mr Ted Turner of CNN who is prepared to buy Mr Gusinsky's shares and keep the station nominally independent. Some have welcomed his move but Russia needs to retain an active, imaginative and critical opposition channel rather than have it replaced by the anodyne fare Mr Turner has provided on his world-wide cable station.