Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 3 – After a Russian
court ordered Aleksandr Gabyshev forcibly confined and treated in a psychiatric
facility, Yakutsk mayor Sardana Avksentiyeva posted on her Instagram account a
denunciation of this action, declaring that it represented a dangerous return
to the punitive use of psychiatry by officials against opponents.
She said that it was not for her to
decide whether Gabyshev was a shaman or not – various people have various opinions
on that – but “the absolute majority of us” don’t like such actions because
they open the way to the use of drugs and other techniques to punish people and
change their minds (newsru.com/russia/02jun2020/sardana.html).
Avktsentiyeva, an opposition
politician known for speaking her mind, added that she was not empowered to interfere
in the activities of medical institutions, the police or the courts; but at the
same time, she pointed out that she had taken an oath “to preserve the rights
and freedoms of man and citizen.”
This is the latest twist in the long-running
story of the shaman who promised to walk to Moscow and “exorcise” the evil
spirt that Vladimir Putin embodies. Instead
of treating him as a marginal figure, Moscow officials have pursued and
persecuted him as if he were someone who directly threatened Putin and
themselves.
By acting in this way, they may
prove to be right: By attracting such public support as a declaration by the
mayor of the capital of the Republic of Sakha, Gabyshev may be a threat not
directly as some at the center thought but indirectly as the trigger for
growing concern about the behavior of the powers that be.
If officials even at the local and
republic level cease to be afraid to speak against what the Moscow regime is
doing – and in the case of the shaman, they have every reason to do so – that will
undermine the authority of those inside the ring road. And quite possibly, it may open the way to forcing
out those who no longer seem capable of rational actions or reversing course.
No comments:
Post a Comment