In Arkhangelsk, Russia, there is a university student named Olesya Krivtsova, 19 years old. She is facing ten years in prison — because she has dared criticize the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine. Her mother, Natalya Krivtsova, told CNN, “She has a heightened sense of justice, which makes her life hard. The inability to remain silent is now a major sin in the Russian Federation.”
I will quote from the CNN report:
According to Natalya Krivtsova, police burst into an apartment on December 26 where her daughter was living with her husband Ilya, forcing the young people to lie face down on the ground and allegedly threatening them with a sledgehammer, which the officers told her was a “hello” from the Wagner Group, a private military contractor headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Said the mother of her daughter, “Olesya was very frightened because she had seen the video in which a prisoner was killed with a sledgehammer.” What’s that all about? CNN explains:
In the notorious video referred to by Natalya Krivtsova, mercenaries from the Wagner Group, which actively recruits prisoners, apparently executed a former convict, Yevgeny Nuzhin, with a sledgehammer after he attempted to flee his post. The video description said: “The traitor received the traditional, primordial Wagnerian punishment.”
For years, we have been told — particularly by pundits in the West — “Putin is very popular with his people, you know.” Think of how frightened the authorities are by the criticisms of a 19-year-old student. Think of the lengths to which they’ll go to shut her up. Does that sound like a regime secure in itself?
In Soviet days, some of the bravest people on earth were Russian. So it is today. Spare a thought for young Olesya Krivtsova, and the others like her.
• Speaking of bravery in Soviet days, Andrei Sakharov — that great scientist and great man — awed the world. Here is some news, from RFE/RL (that combination of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty):
Russia has declared the Andrei Sakharov Foundation an “undesirable” organization amid an ongoing crackdown on international and domestic NGOs, independent media, and civil society.
Of course. The re-Sovietizing of Russian society is a major story of our time.
• In 2016, I was in Latvia, and heard about a Russian news organization, Meduza. It was based in Riga — because honest reporting about Russia had become impossible in Russia itself. Meduza was relied on by Russian citizens hungry for solid information.
(For my report from October 2016 — “Smaller Countries, Far Away” — go here.)
The latest is this: “Russia outlaws Meduza in attempt to stamp out independent news.” In his report for the Guardian, Andrew Roth, the paper’s Moscow correspondent, writes, “The restrictions are so severe that even sharing links to the outlet’s reporting can be considered a crime.”
Yes — part of re-Sovietization.
• While independent media have been banned, the likes of Vladimir Solovyov dominate Russia’s airwaves — its official airwaves. Solovyov is the host of a nightly TV show. I highlighted him in a piece I wrote earlier this month on the “information war” over Ukraine.
In recent days, Anton Gerashchenko has circulated a video of Solovyov, preaching to Russian soldiers. “There is no death, there is only the road to immortality!” says Solovyov. Gerashchenko comments, wryly, “Shouldn’t he lead them into battle then?”
Here is some more Solovyov, doing his act on his TV show: “We had no choice on February 24th. We saved millions of people from Ukrainian Nazis.” (For that video, go here.)
This is what Russians are fed, night after night. They have to grope their way through a kingdom of lies.