What to know about Iran protests, and leader’s plan to flee to Russia

There are many reasons to march against a theocratic dictatorship. Longstanding human rights violations on Iranian citizens play a part, but the proximate cause here seems to be economic. The Iranian currency, the rial, has been falling in value for years against the American dollar, more steeply lately. In 2015, when Iran joined a nuclear accord, rials were trading at 32,000 to the dollar. The currency has basically fallen ever since, reaching a record low in December of almost 1.5 million to the dollar. This depreciation worsens the effects of inflation, which in recent months has run at nearly 50 per cent, and has caused the price of consumer goods to rise.