The late capitalist environment shapes a citizen through complex, multi-layered and interdependent systemic violent practices. The post-Soviet environment makes these practices simpler and more outspoken. The grassroot response to the violence of the authorities becomes forcibly violent, especially with the participation of the far right, which has established itself as a radical and passionate component of the protest forces. At the same time, power optics are turning a peaceful protest in soft “liberal” forms into a blind spot of political speech, a passive resource of discontent that only awaits radicalization in a violent direction. The artworks of Siarhei Shabokhin and Nikolai Karabinovych demonstrate the complex relationship between governmental violence, grassroots violence-in-response, nonviolent protest and forms of governmental pressure that appear to be peaceful, as well as the rhetoric of situational justification for actions beyond what is called “public dialogue”.