Putin Regime Now Views Those It Persecutes ‘Not as Ordinary Criminals but as Enemies of the State’ and Punishes Them Accordingly, Memorial Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 17 – Since Putin launched his expanded war against Ukraine in 2022, the Russian authorities have changed the way they view anyone who opposes them. Such people, the regime now views “not as ordinary criminals but as enemies of the state” who must be opposed with ever more severe punishment so as to intimidate the rest of the population, Memorial says.

            According to the human rights organization, those being “persecuted for political reasons” are being given sentences almost twice as long as was the case for the same actions in 2021, 11 years behind bars rather than six years, seven months and not let off with fines or suspended sentences (memopzk.org/analytics/vragi-a-ne-prestupniki).

            The war in Ukraine contributed to this development in two ways, the organization says. On the one hand, the authorities faced more opposition; and on the other, “the war unleashed the authorities and allowed them to increase control over society with minimal costs to themselves. This combination could not but lead to increased political repression.”

             A key aspect of this trend is that the powers that be in Moscow have decided that they can achieve their goals of intimidation not by radically increasing the number of people put behind bars, although that has risen, but rather by acting “as cruelly and demonstratively as possible,” so that those not yet attacked will decide not to continue their opposition.

            To that end, Moscow has increased the number of laws governing political cases and increasingly used others in an expansive way so as to be able to act unexpectedly and then viciously against opponents. Moreover, prosecutors have added to the number of charges any individual may face and imposing harsher sentences for the same ones as well.

            Memorial concludes its report with the following observation: “It is important to note that court sentences are only part of the activity of the repressive machine, the most noticeable and officially recorded. Other instruments of repression are more bleak and more hidden from public attention.”