Russian Police Officer Tells Woman Arrested for Anti-War Protest He ‘Serves the Soviet Union’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 2 – A Tatar woman who was taken to a police station in Naberezhny Chelny after she was reported to have put a “no war” sign in the window of her apartment. The policeman examining her explained that he “serves the Soviet Union,” what his predecessors would have invariably said. But he quickly corrected himself and said he “serves Russia.”

            That slip of the tongue reveals volumes about how the police and other siloviki feel in Putin’s Russia today. Not only does the Kremlin leader aspire to restore the Soviet Union by conquest but those who work for his regime are already identifying in their heart of hearts with that system (idelreal.org/a/31784865.html).

            Albina Ardakhanova, a 30-year-old computer specialist, was fined 30,000 rubles (400 US dollars) for putting up an anti-war sign which the courts held “discredited the Armed Forces of Russia.” She wrote “no war” on a piece of wallpaper and stuck it in her window. Unfortunately, a neighbor saw it and reported her to the authorities.

            “I don’t consider what I did as bravery,” Ardakhanova says. In school, we were always told that war was horrible and that we should sympathize with its victims. “I consider myself a patriot of Russia because I want our country to have a future. Therefore, I am not afraid of anything.”

            She learned from the police who had reported her; and when she was taken to the station, the policeman there made his Soviet-style response to her. Before her trial, she consulted with rights groups who told her to show up but not expect much. That was fortunate because the trial was simply a formality: the powers had already decided she was guilty and would be fired.

            Her family is divided on her actions, with most of its members failing to see that she did anything wrong. Ardakhanova says she isn’t afraid of the authorities. What she really fears is the return of Stalin-era style denunciations by neighbors and acquaintances who don’t agree with her and want to take revenge.

            That is one more way the Soviet past is returning in Russia today.