New Law Punishing Criticism of Authorities Shows How Much They Fear the Truth, SerpomPo Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 7 – New laws imposing punishments on fake news and criticism of regime are “a bad sign” for Putin and his associates, the latest example of their shooting themselves in the foot, SerpomPo says. It shows that those in power fear the truth and sends “a signal to citizens … we need to talk about it even more!” (t.me/SerpomPo/2772).

            They have a large number of things to complain about, and consequently, the new laws are likely to be imposed against many people in an arbitrary fashion that will only further antagonize the population. For a detailed discussion of the laws and the punishments they impose, see graniru.org/Politics/Russia/Parliament/Duma/m.275449.html.

            Telegram channel commentator Aleksandr Plyushchev develops the SerpomPo argument. He says that the new legal measures show just how much the authorities fear the population and especially those who go online and that these laws have only two “goals,” neither of which is likely to be fully achieved (t.me/PlushevChannel/3730 at newtimes.ru/articles/detail/177887).

                On the one hand, Plushchev continues, the Kremlin powers that be clearly want to provide yet another source of revenue for those near the bottom of the pyramid of power by allowing them to threaten people with serious fines and jail time and thus extract bribes and payoffs from them.

            And on the other, he says, echoing SerpomPo, they want to position themselves as “strong” with “machismo,” failing to understand that the way they are doing so shows just how much the powers that be fear the population in general and the Internet with its burgeoning social media in particular.

            “The powers that be,” Plushchyev says, “have finally recognized that the Internet is a dangerous and effective instrument which must not be entrusted to anyone or even more to everyone. They are actively working in it (resources, trolls, bots, media, anonymous channels), but despite all this, they understand they aren’t coping with it.”

            That recognition of that failure will only encourage bloggers and those on social networks to exploit this medium, however much that will put some of them at risk of repression.