The black list
New repressive action: 5 more NGOs declared to be “foreign agents”; one required to pay tax
Well, seems like the process of suppressing "foreign elements" is going in full force in Russia these days. NGOs like Memorial and Agora, as well as some environmentalists from the Kaliningrad exclave, were declared traitors to the Motherland. A couple of months ago, another 5 NGOs from Saratov to Kostroma to Moscow were also included in the "black list", including the Golos association (name means "voice"), whose function is to supervise elections. There's been a systematic suppression of NGOs in Russia - this has become more than clear now. They're constantly being forced to move their offices, new rules are being imposed on them, even loopholes are being found to justify taxing them (which, at least on paper, shouldn't be happening). There's even tacit censorship from the bottoms up, for example landlords who've been renting out their offices to some of these NGOs, after finding out that one of them supervises elections, or another fights for animal rights, they automatically terminate the lease contracts and kick these NGOs out, just in case. We wouldn't want to get into unnecessary trouble, would we?
Actually Golos was the first NGO to find itself under the hammer of the law against "foreign agents". Many of its employees and contributors didn't want to be featured on some black list, so they chose to leave the organization. Since then, the independent election observers have existed as a "movement", a legal niche that allows them to work, but not have bank accounts of their own. That the authorities have not relented in persecuting the likes of Golos and have still put them on the black list anyway, indicates that they don't care about law that much - all they care about is shutting the mouths of those who are not willing to do their bidding. And they've enjoyed quite some success in that respect: many of the former Golos supporters have submitted to the pressure, and quit the cause. It's now very likely that they wouldn't be able to gather enough observers to watch the next local elections in Moscow. And so, the wide-spread apathy among the Russian people is winning yet another victory.
The last elections in Moscow were last September. And two years and a half ago, during the parliamentary elections, the independent observers were faced with a number of violations. Just to remind, this caused some huge protests that went on for months. And yet, people in Russia have realized since then that it's better not to kick against the state too much - that fear may've already become genetically inherent to them. Everyone in Russia knows that if the state decides to destroy a person, that person is considered done.
The case of Valentina Cherevatenko is exactly of that sort. She's the chairlady of the Women of the Don initiative, from the district of Rostov. The organization defends women's rights, fights against domestic violence and tries to improve the police's image, arranging meetings between kids and cops. In the meantime, the Women of the Don are not only considered foreign agents, in fact there's been a court case against Cherevatenko. And on charges that are absurd, to say the least: see, she had been asked via letter by a prison inmate to visit him because he needed help. She did visit him, and though the meeting didn't lead to anything significant, the regional prosecutor then accused her that during her visit in that prison she had instructed the inmate to raise a rebellion there. That's more than absurd. She did nothing of the sort; moreover, she had no motivation to do anything of the sort. But still, the prosecutor insists that the case should be viewed in court.
Now she could get a few years in jail because of this. And there've been other cases like these, where leaders of NGOs, supposedly "foreign agents", have been intimidated and threatened with judicial prosecution. The leader of the Memorial society, Arseny Roginsky believes that this is part of a second wave of repressions. The first one happened last fall, and was related to the then upcoming winter Olympic games. Now we may be witnessing the second wave, but this time in a new, ideological context. In the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, propaganda is showering from all TV channels, newspapers and other media in Russia. People might be starting to recall the times of Stalin, when the country was supposedly surrounded by enemies, and there was a "fifth column" inside the USSR.
If we look at the news and political programs on Russian TV, we'd instantly be treated to a cannonade of accusations: see, NGOs that are directed from abroad, are threatening to undermine Russia's stability and integrity from within. The same narrative was hinted at by Putin himself, in his speech before the national security council. You see, other countries are hating on Russia, and they'll try to weaken Russia internationally in any way possible. They'll use the secret services, the modern information technologies, and yes, the NGOs as well, which are financially controlled from abroad. So good patriotic Russians should react to this threat accordingly.
And the instruments in response to that "threat" are more than clear: more and more draconian laws. The Memorial society reports that since the beginning of July, anyone who attempts to organize a public screening of a documentary movie (or any movie, to that matter), should get direct approval by the authorities. For each and every movie! And Memorial has been organizing weekly screenings and public discussions in their cinema halls. Any guesses whether they'll be allowed to continue? Yes, you guessed right. The Russian government will stop at nothing to keep restricting political freedoms. They probably won't destroy these organizations completely, because they'll need an excuse, and a pretext to save face and pretend that there's still traces of democracy left in their country. More likely, they'll want to control these NGOs, and thus prevent any trouble emerging from their general direction. Until apathy takes over the entire Russian society. That can't be too difficult to achieve: after all, political apathy has been part of that society for decades.
Well, seems like the process of suppressing "foreign elements" is going in full force in Russia these days. NGOs like Memorial and Agora, as well as some environmentalists from the Kaliningrad exclave, were declared traitors to the Motherland. A couple of months ago, another 5 NGOs from Saratov to Kostroma to Moscow were also included in the "black list", including the Golos association (name means "voice"), whose function is to supervise elections. There's been a systematic suppression of NGOs in Russia - this has become more than clear now. They're constantly being forced to move their offices, new rules are being imposed on them, even loopholes are being found to justify taxing them (which, at least on paper, shouldn't be happening). There's even tacit censorship from the bottoms up, for example landlords who've been renting out their offices to some of these NGOs, after finding out that one of them supervises elections, or another fights for animal rights, they automatically terminate the lease contracts and kick these NGOs out, just in case. We wouldn't want to get into unnecessary trouble, would we?
Actually Golos was the first NGO to find itself under the hammer of the law against "foreign agents". Many of its employees and contributors didn't want to be featured on some black list, so they chose to leave the organization. Since then, the independent election observers have existed as a "movement", a legal niche that allows them to work, but not have bank accounts of their own. That the authorities have not relented in persecuting the likes of Golos and have still put them on the black list anyway, indicates that they don't care about law that much - all they care about is shutting the mouths of those who are not willing to do their bidding. And they've enjoyed quite some success in that respect: many of the former Golos supporters have submitted to the pressure, and quit the cause. It's now very likely that they wouldn't be able to gather enough observers to watch the next local elections in Moscow. And so, the wide-spread apathy among the Russian people is winning yet another victory.
The last elections in Moscow were last September. And two years and a half ago, during the parliamentary elections, the independent observers were faced with a number of violations. Just to remind, this caused some huge protests that went on for months. And yet, people in Russia have realized since then that it's better not to kick against the state too much - that fear may've already become genetically inherent to them. Everyone in Russia knows that if the state decides to destroy a person, that person is considered done.
The case of Valentina Cherevatenko is exactly of that sort. She's the chairlady of the Women of the Don initiative, from the district of Rostov. The organization defends women's rights, fights against domestic violence and tries to improve the police's image, arranging meetings between kids and cops. In the meantime, the Women of the Don are not only considered foreign agents, in fact there's been a court case against Cherevatenko. And on charges that are absurd, to say the least: see, she had been asked via letter by a prison inmate to visit him because he needed help. She did visit him, and though the meeting didn't lead to anything significant, the regional prosecutor then accused her that during her visit in that prison she had instructed the inmate to raise a rebellion there. That's more than absurd. She did nothing of the sort; moreover, she had no motivation to do anything of the sort. But still, the prosecutor insists that the case should be viewed in court.
Now she could get a few years in jail because of this. And there've been other cases like these, where leaders of NGOs, supposedly "foreign agents", have been intimidated and threatened with judicial prosecution. The leader of the Memorial society, Arseny Roginsky believes that this is part of a second wave of repressions. The first one happened last fall, and was related to the then upcoming winter Olympic games. Now we may be witnessing the second wave, but this time in a new, ideological context. In the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, propaganda is showering from all TV channels, newspapers and other media in Russia. People might be starting to recall the times of Stalin, when the country was supposedly surrounded by enemies, and there was a "fifth column" inside the USSR.
If we look at the news and political programs on Russian TV, we'd instantly be treated to a cannonade of accusations: see, NGOs that are directed from abroad, are threatening to undermine Russia's stability and integrity from within. The same narrative was hinted at by Putin himself, in his speech before the national security council. You see, other countries are hating on Russia, and they'll try to weaken Russia internationally in any way possible. They'll use the secret services, the modern information technologies, and yes, the NGOs as well, which are financially controlled from abroad. So good patriotic Russians should react to this threat accordingly.
And the instruments in response to that "threat" are more than clear: more and more draconian laws. The Memorial society reports that since the beginning of July, anyone who attempts to organize a public screening of a documentary movie (or any movie, to that matter), should get direct approval by the authorities. For each and every movie! And Memorial has been organizing weekly screenings and public discussions in their cinema halls. Any guesses whether they'll be allowed to continue? Yes, you guessed right. The Russian government will stop at nothing to keep restricting political freedoms. They probably won't destroy these organizations completely, because they'll need an excuse, and a pretext to save face and pretend that there's still traces of democracy left in their country. More likely, they'll want to control these NGOs, and thus prevent any trouble emerging from their general direction. Until apathy takes over the entire Russian society. That can't be too difficult to achieve: after all, political apathy has been part of that society for decades.