Paul Goble
Staunton,
December 8 – After peaking at more than 100 cases a month in April and June 2018
and running above 70 the rest of the months of this year, the number of cases involving
extremism charges fell to only 16 in October, a decline that has many celebrating
a new liberality in Russian policy (nazaccent.ru/content/28823-v-rossii-rezko-snizilos-chislo-novyh.html).
In
fact, the precipitous decline is less evidence of that than of the fact that
the judicial system follows Vladimir Putin’s orders. On October 3, the Kremlin
leader expressed his concern that Article 282 of the criminal code was being
applied too often – and the number of cases sank (nazaccent.ru/content/28334-putin-predlozhil-smyagchit-nakazanie-za-vozbuzhdenie.html).
One can only
welcome the fact that the Russian authorities are bringing fewer charges of
extremism than they were, especially because most of them are either completely
absurd or trumped up, but this latest indication that Russian law is only what
Vladimir Putin wants it to be is damning because it means that what has gone down
can go up whenever he wants.
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