Paul Goble
Staunton, February 9 – As bad as conditions are in Sakharovo where many of those detained after the Navalny protests are now held (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/02/are-russian-detention-centers-becoming.html), the situation in detention centers far from Moscow is in almost every case far worse.
Novaya gazeta journalists report on seven such facilities in the regions detailing the typically horrific conditions under which hundreds of protesters are being kept, a reminder that those who went into the streets outside of Moscow were displaying even more courage than their counterparts in the capital given what they would face.
The seven the journalists describe are in Smolensk Oblast, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Perm Kray, Samara Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Kurgan and Khabarovsk kray. They vary but in every case, the claims of jailors that “you aren’t in Sakharovo” where many Moscow protesters are held are fully justified (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/02/09/89127-tut-vam-ne-saharovo).
The consequences for protesters outside the capital are all too often ignored or downplayed given the journalists like diplomats are concentrated in Moscow. But they deserve to be particularly remembered because of just how free the powers that be in these places think they can act with impunity.
And the situation continues to deteriorate in many places. In Ingushetia, this week, a man was called to police headquarters because he dared to criticize pro-Putin demonstrators which the regime had organized to counter the Navalny protests (doshdu.com/zhitelja-ingushetii-vyzvali-v-policiju-za-kritiku-teh-kto-podderzhivaet-putina/).
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