Tuesday, April 27, 2021

‘Full-Blown Fascism has Arrived in Russia,’ Skobov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 25 – Fascism invariably involves “a prohibition on the public expression of views which do not please the ruling clique,” Aleksandr Skobov says. And with the passage of a law requiring anyone speaking in public to get official permission, one is forced to conclude that “full-blown fascism”: has arrived.

            Only the dangerously naïve can deceive themselves that the Putin system is a hybrid one that combines elements of various kinds, the Moscow commentator says. Once a state moves to control the public expression of views in this or other ways, it must be categorized as fascist and it must be resisted (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=608533B4B7653).

            What this new law does is to open the way to the suppression by the powers of any expression of alternative opinions in any venue. That is what those behind it in the Kremlin have long wanted and have now achieved, Skobov says. No one must fail either the Kremlin’s intentions or the consequences of its intentions.

            As with so many other Putin measures, he continues, this one has been introduced in a way that one must refer to as essentially fraudulent, not because the Kremlin contains people who are ashamed of what they are doing. They are beyond shame. But they want to achieve their goals by sowing confusion among those who should know better.

            “The only way to fight fascist laws” like this one, Skobov says, “is to ignore them and violate them massively. The real Russia must simply go into the underground and establish an illegal network for the dissemination of knowledge and the exchange of information.”

            That will involve fighting today’s version of jamming, he continues. It will require looking for new internet platforms that can escape control by “Putin’s fascist regime.” And it will involve being persecuted. At the same time, it demands a new readiness to take part in unsanctioned meetings.”

            These are the only things that people of good will confronted by a fascist regime in their own country can act with dignity.

 

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