The most notable shifts exacerbating tensions in Russia are demographic. First, more than 20 percent of the Russian population was born after the fall of the Soviet Union. This means that a large cohort has never been beholden to Soviet ideals or centralized government and society. Moreover, this generation's formative years mostly were spent in a strong and stable Russia under Putin. Russia fell into chaos during their earliest years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the country has resurged over the past decade. Because of this, the new generation is more interested in an open society and feels freer to resist government control. This shift was seen in the large anti-Kremlin protests held across the country in 2011 and 2012.