Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 19 – Having passed a law imposing criminal penalties on anyone who criticizes the actions of the Russian military abroad, the Duma is now considering a similar measure that would do the same for any critics of any Russian representation abroad diplomatic or otherwise, Boris Vishnevsky says.
The logical next step, the opposition deputy in St. Petersburg’s Legislative Assembly, will be to declare the Russian government at home infallible and impose administrative and criminal penalties on anyone who criticizes any of members or the actions they take (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2022/03/19/ikh-sapog-sviat).
The powers that be undoubtedly will be happy about this; but they should remember that a similar arrangement of sorts existed in some time, “where in the information space ruled complete unanimity” and further recall how that worked out. It destroyed all possibility of feedback and led to “ineffective” decisions that could not be corrected.
According to Vishnevsky, “there is no reason to suppose that now will be any different.”
No comments:
Post a Comment