Human rights in Russia: ‘Putin had to destroy Russian society before launching war’

The Ukrainian war and the Human rights situation in Russia. This was the central axis of a press conference held this Thursday in Buenos Aires by two Russian journalists and a member of Memorial, the Russian NGO which in 2022 was one of the three to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Invited to Argentina by the European Union, the delegation was headed by Pavel Andreyev, member of the board of directors of Memorial. Born in the late 80s with the intention of denounce the crimes of StalinismMemorial is the oldest human rights organization in Russia.

In addition to investigating the Soviet past, the NGO is also involved in the defense of human rights today. Currently, in addition to being an active opponent of the war in Ukraine, Putin’s opponents fight for freedom of expression Like Alexei Navalny.

“We believe that the Nobel they gave us underlines the importance that civil society can have, even in times of war, when human rights are defended. We want to take advantage of our visit to Argentina to meet journalists and civil organizations to discuss these issues,” Andreyev said in his presentation, before complaining that Belarusian lawyer Ales Bialiatski, who received the Nobel Prize along with Memorial and the Center for Civil Liberties in 2022, he recently received a 10-year prison sentence.

Together with Andreyev there were also two journalists – Kirill Martynov and Konstantin Eggert. Martynov is the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Europehalf Russian whose publishing license has been revoked by the Kremlin for its critical coverage of the war and had to add the word “Europe” to its name and settle abroad.

Born in 1993 (one of its first investors was Mikhail Gorbachev), it is the oldest independent Russian media. Before Novaya Gazeta was banned by the Kremlin, its editor-in-chief, Dimitri Muratov, was himself one of those to be awarded the Nobel Prize in 2021.

In his presentation, Martynov stressed how difficult journalism has become in Russia. “Our journalists in Russia they are forced to work anonymously for the great risks they run. We publish this information from abroad to avoid censorship as it may be the only way Russians can discuss what is happening in their country,” she explained.

Eggert, for his part, is a journalist for the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) and a political analyst.

Both Andreyev, the only one of the three who still lives in Russia, and Eggert and Martynov, who currently reside in Latvia, agree that political repression and fear they have grown significantly since the beginning of the war.

To illustrate the situation, Eggert recounted a singular episode: a man in the Russian city of Tula faces a possible 10-year prison sentence after his 8-year-old daughter was denounced by her teacher for drawing a flag of the Ukraine and ask for peace.

“The Russian population is moved by this. It’s a war we never expect to experience. And we are here because we want to ask for the solidarity of the Argentine people, who know a lot about dictatorships and democracy,” Eggert said.

The Russian population and the war

When asked how much real support there is inside Russia for the war and for Putin, Andreyev said yes Impossible to believe any survey sponsored by the government, as people know they can be arrested or fined for expressing views that go against the official story.

According to these polls, between 60 and 80% of the population are in favor of Russian actions, but he stressed that it is necessary to take into account that the population only receives information provided by the government.

Andreyev said up to a million people were estimated to have fled Russia. Those who still remain in the country have to live with a situation of distrust and a growing polarization structured around opinions on the war. A “crack” that led to the destruction of thousands of familieswhere father, sons and brothers are increasingly distanced due to their views on what is happening in Ukraine.

“This has affected all families. A few days ago I was in a restaurant and overheard a group of four women talking about how they didn’t trust their friend’s child. The level of stress in Russian society has grown exponentially”, Andreyev specified, who in turn stressed that the sanctions imposed by the West have hit Russian small traders hard, many of whom have left the country.

On the issue of civil society support, Eggert pointed to the millions of deaths over the past 100 years, from World War I and II to Stalin’s massacres, as evidence that Russian society “is used to violence.”

“It’s a company that tries to stay away from these issues. Not because they are an evil people, but because they are traumatized. Regardless of whether the Ukrainian people are suffering the most from the consequences of the conflict, this too is a tragedy of war”, concluded the journalist.

One before and one after

Along with the war, the other central issue was the rule of Vladimir Putin and the growth of authoritarianism and repression. Asked by Clarin about who he thinks he is the turning point from which the political situation began to deteriorate in Russia, Martynov pointed to a specific moment.

“The 2018 World Cup was maybe last time Russia showed itself as an open country everyone,” the journalist explained. From there, a slow but steady process of degradation of the Russian political sphere began.

Just two years later, Putin amended the constitution such that he could be re-elected until 2036. His current term ends next year, but after that he can be re-elected for two more than 6 years each.

And while the persecution of the political opposition has happened in the past (Martynov cited the 2015 assassination of Boris Nemstov, a central figure in Putin’s opposition), the situation has ceased to be a secondary matter and has become a topic explicit.

“Starting from 2020, with the attack on Navalny, this has become a common practice”, added Martynov, who further noted that, for the Russian government, he himself is considered a “foreign agent”.

Although the reporter pointed out that this has no legal definition (he claims, for example, that “there is no way to prove that one is not a ‘foreign agent'”), the government requires him to indicate this status whenever post something .in social networks. At the same time, he is obliged to hand over his financial statements to the Ministry of Justice. If you don’t, you could risk going under pressure.

“Everything is part of a campaign to divide society. Not at the Soviet level, but something we’ve never seen before. Looking back, I think it was all some kind of preparation for war in Ukraine. Putin had to destroy Russian society before we can embark on the invasion,” he detailed.

“Nobody in Russia wanted this war. As long as it was possible, people came out to protest and point out that they were not in favor of the assault. Until 10 years ago, no one believed that this kind of aggression against a neighbor was possible,” she concluded.