Managing Dissent
"Bastrykin is a man who follows any order -- he'll shut anyone down on any charge -- and that's what makes him so valuable to Putin."
Alexei Navalny, anti-corruption activist
"Those charges are obviously crazy and have no legal basis, but to some degree, that's part of the point. It shows that all legal measures have been thrown out the window, and that scares people."
Gleb Pavlovsky, former Kremlin political consultant
Mr. Navalny, it seems, is not intimidated. Russia seems always to turn in on itself, it tries out various types of dictatorships, shifts over somewhat to men of principle like Nikita Kruschev and Mikhail Gorbachev and even Dmitri Medvedev - patriots, people who really do have a conscience and a love of country and hope to administer the affairs of the nation with distinction and honour.
And then they return to the adoration of a strongman, someone who reminds them of the implacably murderous Joseph Stalin. Russian memories go short on brutality and mass slaughter, human deprivation and sinister intrigues, and linger on the blurred vision of nostalgia for an earlier era when they think they recall good times under the USSR with food and energy fully subsidized and freedom fully aborted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin brought his former KGB colleagues into political executive positions as heads of state institutions, giving them the opportunity to do as he has done, personally enrich themselves. And they have been most magnanimous to themselves in that regard. They vie with the oligarchs in the plump feather-bedding that sees Russian affairs of state as corrupt as it could possibly be.
Critics of Vladimir Putin and his decisions were not just opposing politicians but intrepid journalists as well, and it is simply amazing how many of the latter have lost their lives through unfortunate incidents, some violent, some puzzlingly opaque, but effectively silencing their impudent voices. Now Mr. Putin is stifling NGOs, and turning his attention to opposing political voices.
And Alexander Bastrykin whom President Putin has elevated to head of his regime's political police under the Investigative Committee is in full gear, launching investigations and charges having little basis in reality, but leading to trials, sometimes kidnapping, sometimes torture gaining confessions, sometimes deportations.
Dissenters who claim wrong-doing on the part of the government have discovered just how vulnerable they are to false charges, to indictments, to imprisonment, to threats, to fear for their lives. The organization that Mr. Navalny runs to unveil corruption has experienced now the inconvenience of major donors withdrawing their support for fear of being linked to him.
And Mr. Navalny is being kept so occupied in defending himself from all manner of absurd charges that he can no longer devote the bulk of his time and his energies to pursuing the matters that brought his activism to the attention of the Kremlin and consequently to Mr. Bastrykin.
Where once Mr. Navalny was able to muster over 100,000 protesters, they have dwindled to disappearance stage.
Labels: Controversy, Corruption, Crime, Human Relations, Hypocrisy, Political Realities, Russia
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, April 02, 2013
<< Home