Vladimir Kara-Murza has been in prison since April because he opposes Putin’s war against Ukraine. He faces a sentence of up to 15 years because he called Putin’s “special military operation” what it is: a war. He is a contributor to the Washington Post.
PRETRIAL DETENTION CENTER 5, Moscow — One morning last week, the prison guard called my name through the cell door: “Be ready in 10 minutes. There’s a commission to see you.”
There are many inspections that pass through this prison, but this one was different. Sitting at the center of a long table and flanked by the prison warden and other uniformed officials was Tatyana Potyaeva, the human rights ombudswoman for the city of Moscow. “Quite a few people have inquired about you,” she said. Looking through her folder, she mentioned Natalia Solzhenitsyna, the widow of Nobel Prize-winning writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, as well as Dmitry Muratov, editor of the now-closed Novaya Gazeta newspaper and co-recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. “So I wanted to see how you were.”
I was fine, I said, as I do to every visiting commission — adding that my only complaint was over being imprisoned for my political views in the first place. My conditions are okay. I know they must certainly be better than what my grandfather experienced when he was arrested on “anti-Soviet” charges in 1937 before being sent to the gulag. He survived that (and went on to serve in World War II, earning some of the highest military decorations). I can certainly survive this.
I did have one request for the ombudswoman, though. On Sept. 11, Moscow will hold municipal elections for some 1,400 district council seats across the city. Until I am convicted, I still enjoy my voting rights. The prison where I am held is only a 40-minute drive from my home and my polling place in downtown Moscow — so I said I wanted to exercise my right to vote. The ombudswoman promised to look into it.
“Voting rights,” of course, is a difficult phrase in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. For years, our elections have been deprived of any real meaning. Politicians who posed a genuine challenge to the Kremlin have been murdered, imprisoned or pushed into exile. Some opposition parties have been banned. Independent media outlets have been shut down. And, on top of all that, the authorities have introduced a variety of electoral “reforms” that are clearly designed to allow manipulation of the results.
But even when your vote does not affect the results, it’s still important to express your voice. Years ago, I visited the former Gestapo headquarters in Cologne, Germany, which now houses a museum of national socialism. Among its exhibits is a ballot from one of the many plebiscites held in 1930s Germany to demonstrate universal support for the Führer. Someone had carefully put a cross next to the word “Nein” — “No.” I remember looking at that ballot and thinking that, even though the person who used it might not have changed the course of history, he or she took a step to reject the crimes committed with the complicity of the supportive or silent majority.
Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February, more than 16,380 Russians have been detained at antiwar protests across the country. More than 2,400 have been charged with administrative offenses for speaking out against the war. Dozens, including me, have been arrested under a new Criminal Code clause that penalizes public opposition to the war by up to 15 years’ imprisonment. Earlier this month, a Moscow court sentenced municipal lawmaker Alexei Gorinov to seven years in prison for denouncing the war on Ukraine at his district council meeting. In the same period since the start of the war, some 150,000 people have chosen to simply flee Russia.
But there are many more people in this country who oppose Putin’s war on Ukraine — yet aren’t prepared to risk years in prison by speaking out publicly. (The situation that, I believe, would be true of most societies.) And that is why September’s elections matter. Residents of the capital will have a chance to take a stand on the situation just an hour’s flight away from Moscow, where cities continue to be bombed and people continue to die every day as a result of Putin’s imperial ambitions. Putin’s own United Russia party has placed support for the war — still euphemistically referred to by the state media as a “special military operation” — at the center of its municipal campaign platform. Meanwhile, the so-called official opposition parties, such as the Communists or Just Russia, seem to be competing to show who can be the loudest at expressing support.
The one exception is Yabloko, Russia’s veteran liberal party. It has managed to retain access to the ballot in Moscow, and it opposes Putin’s war on Ukraine. Some of its leading members, including journalist and historian Lev Shlosberg and Moscow municipal lawmaker Andrei Morev, have been fined for making public antiwar statements. In September, Yabloko will be fielding candidates across Moscow, and even though they won’t be able to say much because of the new laws criminalizing antiwar speech, the party’s stance is well known. “Our stand for peace is a matter of principle,” said Maxim Kruglov, a member of the Moscow City Duma and Yabloko’s campaign coordinator. The word “peace” is still legal in Russia, at least for now.
In a few weeks, Muscovites will get a rare chance to say “no” to dictatorship and aggression, as that anonymous German did with their ballot. I may have few rights in a Russian prison, but that is one I am certainly intending to exercise.
An American in Berlin dissents against the West and its role in the Ukraine proxy war: https://victorgrossmansberlinbulletin.wordpress.com/2022/07/11/the-war-germany-the-left/
This is a well-detailed but not overly complicated history of the actions of the West (all well documented) that Russia perceived as threatening to its interests and even its survival. You can make the argument that those actions don’t justify Russia’s actions, but you cannot deny those actions, deny that Russia had a right to be concerned or pretend that Russia’s actions reflect the irrational actions of a power-hungry madman
Had the BRICS alliance moved into territories surrounding the U.S. the way NATO moved into territories surrounding Russia, we would not have been half so patient. I would like to know what any of you would have done in Putin’s shoes with NATO forces conducting hostile exercises and building up forces in a neighboring country, while that country bombed and persecuted ethnic Russians. Would you have let the slaughter continue? Would you let NATO put nuclear and other weapons within easy distance of your capital city?
BTW, don’t come at me, come at the facts in this article. If searching for a more objective, balanced truth makes me a “Putin lover” or whatever, fine, but keep that lazy, intellectually bankrupt “argument” to yourself – it’s irrelevant. You cannot be taken seriously if you simply dismiss everything you disagree with as “Russian propaganda”.
Nothing that you say, nothing that you cite, justifies a brutal war on Ukraine, killing thousands of civilians and literally obliterating entire cities—like Mariupol. Putin’s decision to destroy his neighbor is maniacal, sadistic, and sheer insanity.
Your lack of empathy for the innocent victims of this vicious war remains a puzzle. Your lack of remorse for the innocent men, women, and children of Ukraine is incomprehensible.
Russia’s border with NATO increased dramatically now that Finland and Sweden have applied for membership in NATO.
Ukraine, when ever this war ends, will have suffered devastating losses of people and the obliteration of its cities, towns, and villagers.
You choose the aggressor. You scour the Internet to fund other pro-Russian sympathizers. How sad.
Remember, there are still die-hard defenders of Stalin, not only in Russia, but right here in the US. There’s really nothing that can be done for them. The history and facts are clear to everyone but them. Putin’s lineage is Stalin, not Gorbachev. And there were plenty of Germans at the end of WWII who felt they let Hitler down.
Well said, Diane. Precisely.
Dienne77 is totally deluded on this subject.
Wow, D-77 is certainly giving a huge pass to Tsar Putin. Seriously, she’s suggesting that the US and its allies compelled Putin to invade and gobble up Ukrainian territory?!?!!! Putin does not even regard Ukraine as a legitimate country, he has zero respect for Ukrainian sovereignty and its borders. He is an amoral authoritarian president for life; he rules with an iron fist and murders, imprisons or forces opponents to flee Russia. Even Russian exiles in other countries are not safe; recall the Russians who were poisoned in the UK. Putin is a vicious, ruthless oligarch who will stop at nothing to get his way. If thousands have to die in aid of Tsar Putin’s geopolitical ambitions, so be it. My head is spinning at D-77’s musings. Ukraine used to be part of the USSR/Russian empire which Putin wants to restore.
She picked up from the Putinist goon she linked to yesterday the characterization of the war in Ukraine as a US/NATO proxy war against Russia, AS IF IT WEREN’T RUSSIA THAT FREAKING INVADED AND IS IN THE PROCESS OF LEVELING LARGE PARTS OF UKRAINE, as if the people of Ukraine weren’t valiantly DEFENDING THEMSELVES. There are no words sufficient to the amount of delusion required to hold such a position about the Ukraine conflict as she holds. But, then, she linked favorably to an essay in which the author expressed his desire to see a nuclear-armed Iran.
Wackos.
Putin’s foreign minister said yesterday that Russia’s goal is to oust Zelensky and “liberate” all of Ukraine. Whether or not Ukrainians agree.
Perhaps Dienne thinks that a home invader who trips and falls and harms himself while burglarizing your home should be able to sue you for damages. That would make precisely the same sort of sense that she makes in these posts of hers.
Joe Jersey,
Putin is also eyeing other countries that broke free of Russia. Moldova. Lithuania. Latvia. Estonia. And more. That’s why the former satellites were eager to join NATO. They were afraid of a new Russian imperialism. They were right.
Have any of you read one word of any of the linked article? Or any article I’ve ever linked? Are you allergic to alternate perspectives?
Incidentally, if I’m so unempathic about the victims of this invasion, why am I the only one who wants to see a negotiated settlement? It’s evident that Ukraine cannot win, no matter how many weapons we send. Encouraging the continuation of this war is only sacrificing more and more Ukrainian lives. If you are so empathic, when are you suiting up and putting your own life on the line? Have you encouraged your own sons and grandsons to do so?
Also, were you this empathic about the victims of all of the U.S. wars of aggression? Were you excoriating Bush for the evil of invading Iraq? Was he a raving madman/evil monster? What about Afghanistan? Libya? Many of you were alive for Vietnam – did you have the same empathy for our victims there? Were you demanding that the U.S. stop it’s imperial war of aggression? What about the war in Yemen now, which the U.S. is arming and fueling? Are you as enraged at Saudi, American and British leaders over the 400,000+ who have died there?
Hey, Dienne,
In case you didn’t notice, Putin won’t negotiate.
Oh, wait, he negotiated to allow Ukraine to ship grain to starving counyries. But less than 24 hours later, he bombed Odessa, the port where most of the grain is stored.
dienne77,
Where was your concern when it was the women and children in Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria who were being slaughtered by their own governments and the US intervened?
dienne77’s concern for “ethnic Russians” seems more about her wanting to justify Putin’s atrocities than any concern for protecting people from their own repressive government. Or is it that “ethnic Russians” (white??) lives matter more.
And her insane attempts to say that Russia is in danger from the surrounding countries is ridiculous.
Does she mean Russia is in danger of becoming a REAL DEMOCRACY if their people see functioning democracies nearby?
BTW, none of you have answered my question: what would you have done in Putin’s place? “I wouldn’t have invaded” is not a valid answer, as I’m asking what would you have done, not what you wouldn’t have done. Would you allow NATO troops to build up on your border? Would you continue to allow the slaughter of ethic Russians in eastern Ukraine?
If I were Putin, I would not have launched a war that would kill thousands of my troops and thousands of Ukrainians. I would not have launched a war that scared Finland and Sweden so much that they want to join NATO. If I were Putin, I would continue to integrate the Russian economy and society into the global order, where ideas and products are exchanged. I would have sought to make Russia a nation respected for its culture, its literature, its arts, its technology. I would stop the repression, censorship, and murders. I would not have insisted on remaining in office for another 15 years. I would seek to make Russia a vibrant economy, a democratic society, a society where others can run against me without fear of prison or death.
Instead, Putin chose war, death, censorship, repression.
Fascist dictatorship. Leader for life. Cruel repression.
It’s dienne77’s hypocrisy that gets to me.
Can you imagine her documenting instances that ISRAEL “perceived as threatening to its interests and even its survival” ?
Why does she give Putin a pass for being far worse than Israel, which actually has a more functioning democracy than Putin?
dienne77’s pure hatred of Democrats has led to her embracing neo-fascism, and like most fascists, the truth is whatever helps you achieve what you want.
If you like what is happening in Russia today, in which you can be arrested and sent to prison for 15 years simply for holding up a blank piece of paper on the street, then you will love what the Repugnican Party has in store for you. Trump has long been Putin’s dog, ofc, and the Repugnican Party is slavish, in turn, to Trump. And Putin and Trump and the new instantiation of the Repugnican Party stand for nationalism, imperialism, orligarchic kleptocracy, fixed elections and suppression of voting rights, sexism, homophobia, use of brutal state violence against dissent, state-controlled media, nationalist indoctrination curricula, and Christian fundamentalism. These are different faces of the same disease. This is what fascism looks like today.
It’s been about 70 years since we fought and won world wars against fascism, and here we are, sliding precipitously into fascism right here at home.
cx: oleaginous, oligarchic kleptocracy
and, of course, the cult of the personality of the Glorious Leader
A recent post asked, what does the Republican Party now stand for? Well, this. It is a full-fledged, unrepentantly fascist party just like Hitler’s NSDAP or Putin’s United Russia but hasn’t yet reached the level of control where it can operate according to the unchecked, murderous, repressive desires of its leadership.
By 2025, that may no longer be the case.
While historians rightly focus on Gleichschlaltung, the activities that lead to the legal and social aligning of party and government in 1933, less well understood and studied is the phenomena of Selbstgleichschaltung, when people self censor or change their behavior and views in order to not make waves. Go along and get along. We are seeing it happen already here. Few notice, but like some diseases, when you notice the symptoms, it might be too late to do anything about it.
Gleichschlaltung: Aligning all parts of the nation to the state and to its embodiment, the Glorious Leader
Selbstgleichschaltung: Aligning all parts of the self to the state and to its embodiment, the Glorious Leader (see, for example, the 2-minutes’ hates and Junior AntiSex League in 1984).
And, ofc, the concept of “thoughtcrime”
Wow, what do you know? U.S. and British “intel” is full of s—. Either that or they are deliberately lying (again). Either is possible.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/07/26/scott-ritter-washingtons-russian-drone-fantasy/
If only you cared about the women and children of Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria and Ukraine as much as you care about “ethnic Russians” who you seem to believe can only be saved by Putin’s atrocities.
And you keep changing your reasons for why you excuse Putin for his actions. Your designated scapegoat changes at a drop of a hat.
It all depends, NYC, on what piece of Putin propaganda she has read today in Consortium “News.” Today is black is white and white is black day. Yesterday was 2 + 2 = 5 day. Why she bothers to get her Putinesca Propaganda from the Russian assets and agents at Consortium rather than directly from Tzar Vlad and his lying criminal mouthpiece Sergei Lavrov, who knows.
And, ofc, D77 knows full well that most people commenting here opposed the 2nd Iraq War.
Well you all have dienne77 under control. There is a lesson to be learned from Ukraine . Let us say that Gorbachev was snookered and did not understand the nuance of NATO not moving East when the Berlin Wall fell vs when Yeltsin saved Gorbe from winding up in Siberia and then the Soviet Union collapsed.
That lesson is never give up your Nukes as Ukraine would be the third largest nuclear power in the World . The Budapest Memorandum signed by the US , UK and Russia guaranteed security for the Ukraine . Could Gorbachev display a similar document.
Putin would not have dreamed of crossing the border in 2014 no less 2022 . Even if they kept a tiny fraction of what they had. Which brings us back to Putin’s B.S. position. NATO never was or ever is invading across the Russian border. It would simply be MAD.
As for his claims of genocide,war is never EVER clean and both sides can come up with violations such as the mistreatment of Prisoners . But that does not even come near a claim of genocide and it was rejected by everyone who looked at it . On the other hand specifically wiping out whole cities might .
Thanks, Joel, for pointing out that NATO was never planning to invade Russia. Putin invented that lie.
NATO is a defensive alliance. Period. Any deluded individual who says otherwise has no clue about foreign relations.
Thanks, Joel. Exactly.
Courage. This man has courage to stand for what is right, even though he is unfairly imprisoned. I cannot weigh in on the comment thread, for I haven’t time, but suffice it to say that Putin had no viable reason to attack Ukrain and the blood of its people are on his hands. Thank you, Diane, for sharing this one!
Courage indeed.