Putin’s Regime Rests on Its Ability to Instill and Maintain Fear in the Population, Pastukhov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 18 – Some observers both inside Russia and abroad think that Putin has discovered a different way of maintaining control than Stalin used because the number of political prisoners now is far lower than it was during the period of the Great Terror in the late 1930s, Vladimir Pastukhov says.

            But in fact, the numbers of political prisoners is roughly the same as it was in the Brezhnev era, a regime, the London-based Russian analyst says, that most regard as dependent on repression for survival. Putin’s is no different (t.me/v_pastukhov/1570 reposted at echofm.online/opinions/repressii-poshli-v-narod).

            “The number of people repressed on the basis of all types of ‘political’ paragraphs of the Criminal Code, including hidden repressions like punitive psychiatry and exile, at the twilight of the Soviet era, that is, in the 1970s and 1980s” was approximately the same as the number now being victimized, Pastukhov says.

            “And in certain respects, especially in terms of the diversity and sophistication of its mechanisms, today’s times can give the Soviet ‘prison house of nations’ a run for its money,” the Russian analyst says. And contrary to popular beliefs, for the support of an atmosphere of total fear and submission, mass repressions are not only not necessary but even harmful.”

            According to Pastukhov, “Putin's regime is largely based on fear, and it would be wrong to underestimate the significance of fear while inventing three-wheeled repressive bicycles. Removing the fear factor will reveal a completely unexpected picture of the mood in society. Not always flattering, but certainly not very similar to the one the Kremlin is painting today.”

            And that means something else as well, he concludes: “the transition to larger-scale repressions, preparation for which we are see clearly now, is evidence of the growing dysfunctionality of the system … The year 1937 is needed only at the entrance and exit. The rest of the time, the totalitarian system is capable of maintaining itself in an inertial mode.”