Protests over the arrest of former Khabarovsk governor Sergei Furgal continue in the Far East. December 5 saw the 22nd consecutive weekly rally in Khabarovsk. It was the first held in winter as temperatures dropped to around 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees Celsius). But the movement seems to be close to the end: per local media, only around 150 people took part in the protest last Sunday as local authorities closed off most of Lenin Square (where protesters usually gather) to erect New Year decorations.

There’s, of course, the natural exhaustion of a movement that lasted continuously for close to five months without managing to score any significant victories. There’s also the increasing repression from local authorities in recent weeks, with arrests ramping up as the movement itself dwindled. But the nail in the coffin could be the diminishing interest from the rest of Russia. According to a new poll by the Levada Center, a mere 3% of respondents mentioned the Khabarovsk protests as one of the events they had heard about in November.

Yet something significant happened just two weeks ago. On November 23, 17 deputies from the Khabarovsk city council announced they would leave the LDPR party, which until now dominated the body with 34 of the 35 seats. The deputies denounced their party’s lacklustre support of Furgal, an LDPR member. It’s largely believed that the LDPR agreed to hold back on supporting the protesters in exchange for retaining the position of Khabarovsk governor in the party’s hands. “This decision shows what happens when Moscow is far, and the electorate is close,” according to Russian radio host Tatyana Felgengauer. The stunt, however, was a short-lived one: just two days later, the deputies announced they would come back into the fray.