The widespread corruption of Russian politics has created a weakness because voices that should be heard are lost in either graveyards or prison cells right across Russia, and if those voices are lost, then Russia itself without an opposition that has a tangible voice will be lost by the misadventures and ridiculous loss of life in Ukraine due to the miscalculations by Putin and his neo imperialist arguments of a greater Russian empire.
Vladimir Kara-Muza, a political activist, historian and journalist (something of a renaissance man) was arrested in April 2022 for speaking out against the war in Ukraine. An advocate for the Magnitsky Act, he believed in targeted sanctions against the Oligarchs who have stolen Russia’s wealth, he argued that the wealth tied up in the corruption of a political system was itself a reason to challenge the status quo, with targeted sanctions against those who have committed crimes.
On 20th December 1999, in front of the Yuri Andropov centre, (the old KGB headquarters) Putin argued for a new Russia. Putin raised a glass to Stalin and with this image fixed in the mind of Vladimir Kara-Muza, the nation passed from a democracy into a country that suppressed an electoral system and empowered Putin and the security police. Incrementally, power has ebbed away from the Duma and governors to the Presidency, elements of the state have devoured the opposition and if the voices are either to loud or powerful, then assassination is a central core to the craft of the state. Vladimir Kara-Muza has had two assassination attempts on his life, both by poison. In April 2022, he was imprisoned for his opposition to the war in Ukraine.
If history is circular, then there is a question of whether Russia will change, Vladimir Kara-Muza is confident that there will be change, but what will that change be and how will it come? “Historically, Russia has never had a leader who lost an election,” Kara-Muza argued. Change has come from revolution, it has come from violence and civil wars. The question then has to be what will change when Putin is gone, will there be a return to Marxist philosophy or will the Russian’s move back towards the European democratic experiment that Yeltsin was part of? “Against all odds, the Open Russia movement gained 20% of votes in a Oblast, there was scathing coverage by the state controlled media and enormous pressure, but still the Open Democracy movement gained 20% of votes for a candidate who was pro-European and pro-democracy.”
If there is 16% inflation then how does the state remain in power? “There is a social contract between the state and the people. With the wealth coming from oil and gas exports, then the state buys in the goods that the people want and need. In turn the state turns on repressive mechanisms, which parallel the political control of the old state, but are less effective than in the 1980s’.” But there is a certain amount of belief that Russia will change “Soviets said that light was darkest before the dawn. Values and freedom will come to Russia. There will be a time that real elections will come to Russia and if we help young activists with PR, legal and electoral support, then we are on our way to finding our way towards democracy,” said Kara-Muza.
“The first victim of Putin was the Independent media, in the first few years of Putin’s rule he closed down media outlets or took TV or radio stations into the government. The business community that was involved in the media or politics were either forced out of their media interests, were arrested or forced into exile. The corruption and nepotism that is part of the state apparatus would have been much more difficult if there had been an independent media. It is a mindset that is KGB in its origin, which means that it is very difficult for someone like Putin to understand when people demonstrate against his rule, especially when he watched the demonstrations for democracy in Ukraine. Putin does not believe there is a real democracy, he believes that there is also no real media freedom.”
There is a difference between what actually de-marks difference between a state and a dictatorship. It was a question that affected Boris Nemtsov. To get clarity is to define difference, where you are in opposition you are in a democracy, but dissidence is where there is no opposition. Boris Nemtsov believed that he was a dissident and because he had a different vision for Russia, he was dissenting against the regime, which led to his assassination.
Boris Nemtsov, who lived until 27 February 2015, was a Russian physicist, liberal politician and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. He was involved in the introduction of reforms to the Russian post Soviet economy. Throughout the 1990s he worked with President Boris Yeltsin, he was a governor of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and worked for the governement as Minister of Fuel and Energy, Vice Premier of Russia and Security Council Member from 1997-1998.
Nemtsov thought the Putin government as authoritarian, undemocratic and highlighted the widespread corruption and profiteering of the Sochi Olympics, Russian political interference and military involvement in Ukraine. Nemtsov published reports detailing the corruption under Putin and organised demonstrations and marches against the state under Putin and for free and fair elections. His assassins were paid $250,000, but the person who paid them was never found.
The British government thought that the investigation was incomplete, which led to a criminal case with numerous inconsistencies, a judicial process determined by torture and an unclear role of the security services in the investigation and why the assassination had taken place.
There are numerous voices that are imprisoned by the Russian state, but the voices which are loudest are dead. Boris Nemtsov, was one of those voices so it is down to finding new voices that are intelligent and challenge the state through unconventional means that matters. One of those voices was Nemtsov’s one time colleagues Kara Muza, but like all voices he has been in jail since April 2022. Other voices are in the media such as the Noble prize winner Dmitry Muratov, who decided to cover the Ukraine war with a unique view, different from other media outlets in Russia. He has been vilified, covered in red paint and the offices of Novaya Gazeta were shut down. On March 4th 2022, the Russian duma passed a law on false information, which they used to block the websites of the BBC, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. They introduced a fifteen year sentence for inappropriate coverage. Novaya Gazeta continued to cover the war, but after an interview with President Zelensky, they received a warning from Roskomnadzor (Russia’s federal media regulator) for fines and prison sentences, which led to the News outlet suspending coverage of the war in Ukraine.
On 7th April 2022, Muratov was attacked with red paint laced with acetone. The paratrooper Telegram channel Soyuz Z posted a statement stating that:
As we promised […] our great patriots that the blood of our glorious sons will not go unanswered. You bastards see how the Ukrainians came up with the Bucha tragedy and at the same time support this lie, but you don’t notice how our guys throats are being cut. We will come to each of you, just wait!!!
There is certain intelligence that believes the FSB were behind the attack, which once again points to the linear approach of government and intelligence services working together to manage opposition forces. But the lessons have been learnt and those who have not been jailed have moved away from points of conflict and found other arguments to contend with threats against politicians and the media looking to create voices that were once heard.
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