Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 27 – Mikhail Khodorkovsky
says that Russian citizens are fully entitled not to observe unjust laws
imposed not to promote justice but to protect the power of Vladimir Putin, a
potentially dramatic development in the relationship between the Russian
opposition, the Russian people, and the Kremlin.
In a blog post on OpenRussia.org today
that has been widely reposted, the former businessman, political prisoner and
now émigré political leader argues that recent court cases and recent laws show
that “in [Russia], there is no legal system, neither for ‘the others’ nor for ‘our
own’” (openrussia.org/post/view/9227/).
“Many laws in
effect in the Russian Federation are immoral and unjust. It is immoral and
unjust to take away from invalid children the right to be adopted by foreigners
and leave them in far from ideal orphanages. It is immoral and unjust to threaten
to deprive all citizens of Russia access to Wikipedia which does not have any
analogues as a world repository of knowledge.”
Moreover, “it is immoral and unjust
to label groups ‘foreign agents’ and drive out of the country the Dynasty
Foundation which supports scholarship while at the same time [the pro-Kremlin]
United Russia Party receives financing from offshore accounts.”
Many people in many times and
countries have discussed the proper relationship between law as a formal act
and true law, and “a consensus on this has been worked out long ago. If a
formal law is unjust, it does not correspond to true law; and that means that
citizens have the right not to observe it.”
As Khodorkovsky points out, “the
genocide in Nazi Germany also was carried out according to formal law, but who
would decide to condemn those Germans who opposed it and refused to obey such
laws?”
“From this follows a quite simple conclusion,”
he continues. “Citizens of Russia have the complete right not to observe
illegal and unjust laws like ‘the Dima Yakovlev law’ and the laws about the
destruction of sanctioned products. They have the moral and what is most
important the legal right to go around the blocking of websites by
Roskomnadzor.”
The current situation in which Oleg
Mironov was condemned unjustly and therefore “not in correspondence with real
law, reflects “the nature of the Russian law enforcement system or more
precisely its absence. That system has
been transformed into simply ‘a protection’ one” for the authorities.
Those who commit even insignificant
violations but whose actions are not in accord with the leaders of the country are
punished severely, Khodorkovsky continues, while those who commit major crimes
but do so with the agreement of those in power escape without any punishment at
all.
“Regardless of our political views,”
he argues, “we all as a society very much need a state which is capable of
adopting understandable, truly legal and just laws and a state which will
observe these laws and not use them as clubs against those the powers find
unsuitable.” Russians need “a state based on law and not on propaganda and the
unlimited power of one man.’
“A strong state about which many
dream is not a state which can deal as it likes with any political opponent but
one which is capable of ensuring that law is observed on the territory of the
entire country.” Khodorkovsky adds: “without
a state based on law and justice and not personal power, we will not make it
better.”
Keeping people behind bars who
threaten no one violates the principles of mercy which should be behind all
legislation, he concludes. “The desire ‘to
punish’ only distracts the attention of society from the true causes and the
truly guilty.” What Russia needs are laws and a legal system based on justice
and its universal application.
That is not what Vladimir Putin
offers Russians now, Khodorkovsky reiterates, and Russians thus have every
right to violate his unjust and immoral laws and his equally unjust and immoral
application of formal law.
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