Thursday, August 16, 2018

Fight Against Extremism Increasingly Out of Anyone’s Control, Orekh Says


Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 15 – The number of people charged with extremism has increased to the point that activists have now compiled an atlas of extremist cases (tjournal.ru/74863-samye-ekstremistskie-regiony-rossii), but the most horrific aspects of this campaign lie elsewhere: in the absence of central control and in willingness of the authorities to link extremism with terrorism. 

            Russian commentator Anton Orekh says that “chekists and investigators need ever more cases to justify their existence, to receive prizes, awards and ranks, and to expand rather than contract their staffs” and they are inclined to go after those who post online who are easier to trap than the real extremists (mbk.sobchakprotivvseh.ru/sences/modnyj-proizvol/).

                As a result of the needs of the authorities for more cases and the willingness of Russian courts to convict those who are charged with this “crime,” he continues, a situation has arisen in which almost anyone can find himself labelled an extremist not because of anything he has done but because of the needs of those above him.

            “The unpredictability of punishment, the chaotic nature of this area of law, and the accidental selection of those charged must disturb” anyone concerned about Russian life. “And it is not accidental that these cases are acquiring the character of an epidemic” and that “arbitrariness is becoming fashionable.”

            Given the needs of the chekists, a whole class of stukachi and provocateurs is growing up to supplement the “professional” accusers and those citizens who are simply swept along with what they see the authorities want and who act not on the basis of knowledge but rather on what they think is patriotism.

            “The danger in the situation,” Orekh says, “is that it is ever more difficult to control … Chekists in the localities organize the cases, and judges bring in the sentences. Citizens write denunciationas and other citizens go to jail as a result.  How and by what order can this be stopped?”

            Slowing down or stopping this “machine” is very difficult, the Rusisan commentator says; and “the inertia is great” among those individuals who benefit even if the state and society at large suffer as a result.

            Oleg Kozyrev, a civic activist, points to yet another reason why the fight against extremism is getting out of hand: the increasing tendency of officials to link extremism with terrorism. Because no one can be against fighting terrorism, that makes it easier to get people to go along with charges of extremism (rosbalt.ru/posts/2018/08/14/1724657.html).

                The most shameful aspect of Russian laws and court decisions about extremism is how often they include the terms “’… and terrorism,’” he says. No one can be against fighting terrorists so how can anyone be against fighting those linked to terrorism because they are “extremists.” And that makes abusing such laws and cases all the easier.

            “I will not be surprised, Kozyrev says, “if tomorrow this clever approach spread that there will appear a federal list of doctors and terrors, scholars and terrorists, journalists and terrorists, politicians and terrorists, cooks and terrorists, and bakers and terrorists.” Then people will ask anyone who objects to the persecution of those people “what are you for the terorrists?”

            All legislation must clearly separate terrorists and extremists; otherwise as now, the authorities are able to use the struggle with terrorists as a cover for the struggle against the freedom of thought of the population. Indeed, there is the strong suspicion, Kozyrev suggests, that this is exactly what is going on.

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