Paul Goble
Staunton, Feb. 13 – On the basis of their survey of convictions and sentences of those who oppose Putin and his policies, the OVD-Info group concluded in December that the longer Putin’s war in Ukraine goes on, the more repressive his regime will become, with longer sentences for more crimes and less predictability about who will be punished and who will not.
That conclusion (data.ovd.info/repressii-v-rossii-v-2023-godu-obzor-ovd-info#2-3) is cited by Mira Livadina, a Novaya Gazet Evropa journalist, in her article which not only reproduces much the data OVD-Info assembled but also talks about the ways this approach is counterproductive (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/02/13/voina-uvelichivaet-potrebnost-rezhima-v-repressiiakh).
Not only will more and longer sentences fill up Russia’s prisons and camps, but they will simultaneously change incarceration from being about rehabilitation into being an act of pure retribution and guarantee that when those who are convicted under this policy do emerge from behind bars, they will be far more likely to commit real and possibly worse crimes.
The legal specialists with whom she spoke are unanimous on this point, an indication that the damage Putin is inflicting on his own country won’t end with his departure from office but will extend long into the future.
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