Force Structures Now Independent Actors in Russian Politics, Ponomaryev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 16 – “The force structures have become independent subjects of politics” in Putin’s Russia, leading to “police chaos” because the authorities “are losing control over the siloviki” who increasingly are acting on their own and even against the interests of the Kremlin, Lev Ponomaryev says.

            “The rights of people are being violated across the country in the crudest way,” the longtime human rights activist says. In order to resolve their career problems, the siloviki are fabricating criminal cases, arresting and persecuting people. Hundreds of citizens are being accused of posting extremist materials online” (echo.msk.ru/blog/lev_ponomarev/2260146-echo/).

                The increasing absurdity of these charges is sparking a reaction among Russians, Ponomaryev says, and leading them to ask: “What does the president know?”  It certainly appears that he does, given that his spokesman says that “no one can influence the work of a court.” But of course, “how Russian courts actually work is known to everyone.”

            “Many young people consider that they must flee the country. But if young people who are not indifferent to the problems of the country leave, Russia will be deprived of a future.” To prevent that, the absurd actions of the force structures must be stopped, and the only individual who can do that, who can overcome “the inertia” of current events is Vladimir Putin.

            To do so, he will have to take “extraordinary measures in defense of human rights.” And according to Ponomaryev, there is “only one way out: the president must remember that he is the guarantor of the constitution and stop the excesses of the siloviki.  The anti-extremism laws they use must be repealed, and the siloviki and the courts must be forced to live by the constitution.

            As a first step in that direction, the human rights activist calls for the creation of a working group within the Presidential Administration that will rewrite laws connected with extremism and review the actual practices of law enforcement agencies. This group should consist of officials from the government’s own human rights organizations.

            How realistic this proposal is remains to be seen, Ponomaryev continues. But even today, “we see the opposition of the siloviki to civil society and attempts at reviving the state terror that was characteristic for Stalin’s times.  And thus the question arises: was Putin being honest when he said at the dedication of the wall of sorrow that those times must not be allowed to return?

            Or were his words only part of “’a cover operation’ by the special services with Putin at their head? We don’t know this. But reading the explosive publications on social networks,  Ponomaryev concludes, “I am certain that civil society has already made its choice” – and that too is something Putin and his regime need to take into consideration now.