As the fallout continues, things could go one of two ways for Sobyanin.
Now, parts of the establishment are blaming Sobyanin for allowing the unrest to fester.
On Thursday, Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, extended the city lockdown to May 1.
Sergei Sobyanin has spent nearly 40 years
climbing Russia's political ladder, with barely a ripple in the international press.
Sobyanin has strived to defend his position, but many
among Russia's siloviki, the power-brokers who have Putin's ear, are unconvinced.
March 22, 2018 Sergei Sobyanin, applauded residents of the north of Moscow inaugurated
a new section of the Lublin line.
It's no wonder then that Sobyanin's more liberal credentials have earned him the support of private Russian
companies such as Lukoil or Sistema.
By the standards of Russia's‘managed democracy', in which dissent is only tolerated if it is weak and
ineffective, Sobyanin's concession was very much a high water-mark.
Putin and his ally Dmitry Medvedev rewarded Sobyanin by naming him chief of staff and then deputy prime minister,
but the Moscow mayoralty was the juiciest prize of all.
If Putin were to stand aside, Sobyanin's attempts to find a conciliatory route through the recent unrest may enable him to
pitch himself as a more moderate, progressive alternative that could normalize relations with the West.
Moscow's previous mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, aspired to the presidency himself before eventually being ousted by the Kremlin,
but many believe that Sobyanin has a better shot, given
his ability to position himself on both sides of the political divide.