![Joshua Yaffa. Photo by David Trilling. Media file: JYProfile.jpg](/sites/default/files/JYProfile.jpg)
Pulitzer Center grantee Joshua Yaffa traveled to Russia to look at how a burgeoning protest movement against the rule of Vladimir Putin took hold in Moscow and then spread quickly to other major urban centers. Is this the beginning of a new political consciousness among Russia's middle class, or yet another false start that will be brushed aside by Putin and Russia's powerful oligarchs?