New Law Depriving Political Emigres of Civil Rights Directed against Those Still Living in Russia, Martynov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 5 – The new law pushed through the Duma rapidly and quickly signed by Putin which strips Russian political emigres of many of their civil rights is in fact directed even more at those still living in Russia, according to Kirill Martynov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Europe.

            Indeed, he says, “the target audience of the new law  is 140 million people living in Russia” because the measure issued “before the elections” has the effect of creating “a legalized fear” of extrajudicial punishments beyond the scope of court decisions” (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/08/05/vechnye-vyrodki).

            As such, Martynov argues, groups of unnamed officials at the justice ministry who are responsible for maintaining the lists of those whose rights are limited can expand that list at will and thus they “perform the same function that the troikas played during the Great Terror.” For the moment, these new troikas aren’t depriving people of their real lives but only their civil ones.

            And consequently, the editor concludes, Russians can see that if the Kremlin is announcing such “vegetarian” techniques now, it may very well decide to make them something else after the September Duma elections are continued. That in itself produces fear among the population and generates more opposition to the government.