Independent journalists in Russia are among the bravest people on earth — long have been. Same with anyone in Russia who wants to promote transparency, democracy — the truth. The last remaining independent journalists in Russia held out for as long as they could. Now it is impossible. Novaya Gazeta is trying to reestablish itself in exile.
Its editor is Dmitry Muratov. I wrote about him earlier this year. He won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Maria Ressa, the brave journalist from the Philippines. Six of Muratov’s colleagues at Novaya Gazeta have been murdered. I should name them, rather than leave them anonymous: Igor Domnikov. Yuri Shchekochikhin. Anna Politkovskaya. Anastasia Baburova. Stanislav Markelov. Natalia Estemirova.
Last week, Muratov was on a train from Moscow to Samara. Someone attacked him with a red liquid, which burned his eyes. The attacker shouted, “Muratov, here’s to you for our boys!” You can read about it from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, here.
Muratov is still in Russia, apparently. Incredibly brave man. Even the Nobel Peace Prize can’t protect him from Putin’s guys, is my guess. Putin is feeling an impunity. And why not?
• A report in the Wall Street Journal is headed “‘We Will Kill You’: How Russia Silenced Its Antiwar Movement.” Uh-huh. The subheading: “Repressive laws and arrests discourage protests against the war in Ukraine and prompt dissenters to leave.” Oh, yes.
Evan Gershkovich writes,
Alexander Teplyakov wanted to speak out against the war in Ukraine but feared landing in prison if he took part in a public protest. So the Russian activist designed an antiwar sticker featuring Russian and Ukrainian flags and the phrase “NO TO WAR” and posted and distributed thousands of them around Moscow.
He got into trouble anyway.
Yes, indeed.
Gershkovich also writes,
A new Russian law prohibiting referrals to the military campaign in Ukraine as a war or an invasion and mass arrests of protesters have largely eliminated visible signs of dissent inside Russia against the war. Large numbers of Russians opposed to the war have chosen to be exiled.
The Kremlin has welcomed the departures of critics.
Oh, yes. Gershkovich quotes Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, who said, “Many people are showing themselves to be what we in Russia like to call ‘traitors.’ They disappear from our lives on their own. Some resign from their jobs, some withdraw from their professional lives, and some leave the country and move to other places. That’s how Russia is cleansed.”
Yes. Meaningful word, cleansed. Has been used many times, in history — in salutary ways and . . . not.
• “Spurred by Putin, Russians Turn on One Another Over the War.” That is the headline over a report in the New York Times. “Citizens are denouncing one another, illustrating how the war is feeding paranoia and polarization in Russian society.” In this report are strong 1984 vibes.
Anton Troianovski begins as follows:
Marina Dubrova, an English teacher on the Russian island of Sakhalin in the Pacific, showed an uplifting YouTube video to her eighth-grade class last month in which children, in Russian and Ukrainian, sing about a “world without war.”
After she played it, a group of girls stayed behind during recess and quizzed her on her views.
“Ukraine is a separate country, a separate one,” Ms. Dubrova, 57, told them.
“No longer,” one of the girls shot back.
A few days later, the police came to her school in the port town of Korsakov.
Oh, yes.
“With President Vladimir V. Putin’s direct encouragement,” writes Troianovski, “Russians who support the war against Ukraine are starting to turn on the enemy within.”
There is something in this report I find almost amusing:
In St. Petersburg, a local news outlet documented the furor over suspected pro-Western sympathies at the public library; it erupted after a library official mistook the image of a Soviet scholar on a poster for that of Mark Twain.
• Thanks to Vladimir Putin and his gang, Russians are leaving their country in droves, hoping for a better, freer, less fearful life. Natan Sharansky has popularized a useful phrase: “fear society.” Who wants to live in one?
For The Dispatch, Brent Orrell and Alex Nowrasteh wrote an article headed “Skilled Workers Are Fleeing Russia. Let’s Welcome Them.” Yeah, let’s. “Depriving Russia — and Belarus — of such workers would strike a blow against our adversaries and strengthen our economy.” Hear, hear.