Russian Courts Unwittingly Producing ‘Gravediggers of Putin Regime,’ Yakovenko Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 6 – As Russian courts hand down ever more sentences that are either absurd as against opposition figures like Yegor Zhukov or unjust as in cases where officials of the regime guilty of corruption or worse are let off, these institutions of justice are giving rise to a generation which will be “the gravediggers” of the Putin regime, Igor Yakovenko says.

            Zhukov’s concluding speech at the court has already become “the manifesto of the generation that will bury the Putin regime. It is the speech of a smart, educated and insightfully honest and pure young man, a humanist and a  patriot,” the Russian commentator says (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5DEA4CD94B66D).

            Moreover, his words have already attracted great attention. Before his trial, his Youtube channel had only 10,000 subscribers. Now, it has 155,000. In the course of the trial, Yegor Zhukov was transformed from one of tens of thousands of protesters into a symbol of resistance to the regime.”

            “Despite the fact that Zhukov formally remains free,” Yakovenko says, “he faces problematic years ahead.” The court’s ban on his use of the Internet “may become incompatible with the continuation of his studies” and the ban on hosting a Youtube channel means he will have to gain access to others, something that won’t be difficult.

            By acting against him, the Russian courts have given him a boost he could hardly have gotten any other way, thus confirming the words of Anna Akhmatova about the Soviet trial of Joseph Brodsky which brought him international fame.  Today, the commentator says, “the Russian courts are giving birth to protest and hatred to themselves” on a massive scale.

            They are attracting attention to the injustice of the Putin “justice” system and prompting hundreds of people to show up outside courtrooms to make their position clear.  That in turn makes the position of the judges uncomfortable, and now they have decided on a step which will make their situation and that of the regime even worse.

            The Council of Judges of the Russian Federation has drafted a Concept of Information Policy for the Judicial System for 2020-2030.  It calls for an end to disorderly and baseless criticism of judges and their decisions.  Undoubtedly, this will soon be ratified as a law with real penalties.

            “But here is one small problem,” Yakovenko says. “Recently, there have been increasing cases of the evaluation of courts on the basis of anonymous reports that the facilities have been bombed.” Thus, the Putin regime and its judges by acting as they have “are opening the way to those who prefer forcible methods for overthrowing the regime.”

             If the regime were more clever, the Russian commentator argues, it would see that defending rather than attacking those like Zhukov who call for peaceful means may be the only way for the regime’s leaders and minions to “avoid the fate of Muammar Qaddafi.”