Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 1 – The horror and
revulsion all people of good will feel about the murder of Boris Nemtsov in the
shadow of the Kremlin has led many to treat this latest crime as if it were
something new. In fact, the killing of Nemtsov is only the latest example of
Vladimir Putin’s much-tested approach to dealing with his political enemies.
That approach, as Ilya Milshtein
suggests, has now become almost institutionalized. First, Putin marginalizes
his enemies, then he or his allies kill them, and then he muddies the water by
putting out multiple versions of what supposedly has happened, confident that few
will connect the dots and hold him responsible (grani.ru/opinion/milshtein/m.238474.html).
That was what happened in the case
of Galina Starovoitova. That was what happened in the case of Sergey
Yushchenkov. That was what happened in the case of Anna Politkovskaya. And that
is what is happening in the case of Boris Nemtsov. All of them were “driven in
the status of marginal figures and then killed.”
But all too many people are not
prepared to recognize that reality, either out of fear in the case of many in
Russia itself who even now are asking “who will be next?” or out of concern in the
case of some Western leaders that speaking truth about what Putin is about could
provoke the Kremlin leader even more.
Both groups need to follow the
advice of the late Pope John Paul who told his fellow Poles that they must “not
be afraid.” Boris Nemtsov wasn’t, and
neither must Russians nor Western leaders. Instead, they must recognize that
they are not dealing with a normal leader but with a dangerously abnormal one.
Normal politicians forget about
those who cannot challenge them. The books they write and the meetings they
organize or speak to can all be ignored. But Putin is not a normal politician,
and he does not respond that way. Instead, he focuses on those who disagree
with him, seeks to marginalize them, and then directly or indirectly removes
them from the scene.
Putin cracks down on such people as
his enemies, and he and his minions call them exactly that, enemies, “agents of
the State Department, a fifth column, and various other words which in other
times would have meant execution of the camps, but in ours provoke
extra-judicial violence.”
All this is because the regime Putin
has built in the Russian Federation is “simply unthinkable without hatred.”
That is its core value, “and the entire history of Putin’s Russia is the
history of capably directed hatred toward various individuals, social groups,
countries and nations.”
“First there were the Chechens, then
the oligarchs with their television channels, later the Georgians, now the
Ukrainians, Europeans, Americans, and always those who disagree,” Milshteyn
says. And when something awful happens,
Putin and the Kremlin PR operation goes into overdrive to push multiple versions
to obscure what is going on.
Putin’s press secretary yesterday
said that the killing of Nemtsov was a provocation against the Kremlin. “In
fact,” Milshteyn asks, “who could have decided on such a step besides enemies
and conspirators? Obama? Merkel? Navalny? It is too bad,” he continues, that “Berezovsky
is dead because then it would have been convenient to blame him” as well.
If Putin feels the need, those who
carried out the crime may be brought to trial, but those who bear
responsibility for it or even ordered it will not. (The history of such crimes
testifies to that. See slon.ru/russia/politicheskie_ubiystva_v_sovremennoy_rossii-1220581.xhtml.) But there can be no doubt that “guilt for this murder
lies with those in power.”
Putin
and his accomplices should be charged with “incitement to murder,” which is a
crime under the Russian criminal code.
But he and they have learned that the use of hatred and fear not only
protects them from that but brings them major political dividends – and they
aren’t about to change either voluntarily.
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