Paul Goble
Staunton, Feb. 27 – There are now almost 300 young people in Russia known to be behind bars for political crimes, according to the Memorial human rights organization; and the actual number is almost certainly higher given the difficulties of gathering such information, Anna Karetnikova of that group says.
She tells the Horizontal Russia portal that each of these cases is of course a profound human tragedy but that it is especially important to recognize what the Putin regime is doing by charging, convicting and then incarcerating young people in Russia today (semnasem.org/articles/2026/02/27/podrostki-politzeki).
According to Karetnikova, “there is no need today for mass repressions like those of 1937 [because] Russians read the news and get scared. So to scare 100 million people, it’s enough to take ten doctors, ten teachers, ten women, ten youths, ten trans people, ten drivers and show society” what can happen if anyone steps out of line.
“By locking up children along with everyone else,” she argues, “the authorities are showing that they don’t care whether you’re an adult or a child, a man or a woman. If you’re deemed to be an enemy, you’ll end up in prison.”
But the incarceration of children for political crimes, Karetnikova continues, also shows that the state recognizes that it hasn’t been able to educate young Russians in ways that keep them obedient and that the only course open to the authorities is to bring political charges against them and put them in prison.
Of course, she concludes, young people will leave prison and return to society; and tragically, the things they will have learned about the world while behind bars will make recidivism likely and infect the society in even more profound ways. If Russians tolerate such arrests, they may become so desensitized with time that might put up with executions as well.
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