Battered by low oil prices, Western sanctions and a falling rouble, real incomes are on the slide in Russia for the first time in Putin's 15 years in power, presenting the Kremlin with a challenge of how to stop discontent bubbling over. One of Vladimir Putin's most high-profile allies has accused the opposition of trying to exploit the economic crisis to destabilize the country, using Stalin-era rhetoric to suggest unnamed individuals be put on trial for sabotage. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, called the liberal opposition, which has only one lawmaker in the 450-seat parliament, enemies of the people, a phrase recalling language used during the reign of terror unleashed by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in the 1930s.
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