Russians Increasingly View Torture by Authorities as Justified, Opening the Way to More against Society as a Whole, Activists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 26 – Only about one Russian in three now views torture by the authorities as always wrong, down from almost twice that number only a few years ago; and this acceptance of torture to force confessions or control prisoners is opening the way to still more draconian measures not only against prisoners but against the broader society, anti-torture activists say.

            The Putin regime has increasingly used torture against those it has incarcerated and now is openly acknowledging that it does so, as in the case of those accused of being behind the Crocus Hall terrorist attack highlights (semnasem.org/articles/2024/06/26/my-kak-obshestvo-dichaem-tri-shaga-k-tomu-chto-pytki-stali-normoj).

            That case attracted widespread international condemnation, but overwhelmingly Russians viewed the use of torture against accused terrorists as appropriate and even as a means of restoring justice after the authorities had proven incapable of preventing the terrorist attack in the first place, activists say.

            But with each passing year and especially since Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine, Russians have become more acceptant of the use of terror in other circumstances, activists say; and they warn that almost all Russians are now at risk of being tortured even if they are suspected of only the most minor real crimes or imaginary political ones.