As Ukraine struggles, Russia steps up domestic crackdown

A new, expanded law on “foreign agents” in Russia took effect on Thursday, signifying an intensified crackdown on free speech and the opposition under President Vladimir Putin that has accelerated as his fortunes in Ukraine deteriorate. it has deteriorated.

It is also further evidence of Russia’s determination to eradicate what it sees as Western liberal values, coming the same week as Russia’s parliament sent a bill expanding the ban on what it calls “propaganda” of LGBT issues to Putin’s desk. .

The 2012 law on Foreign Agents, passed after a wave of public protests against Putin’s return to the presidency, required organizations engaged in political activities and receiving funding from abroad to register as foreign agents and adhere to draconian rules and restrictions.

That law has been gradually updated since then, forming the backbone of an increasingly strong grip on civil society in Russia over the past decade. As of Thursday, this definition was enlarged to include not only individuals or organizations that receive funding from abroad, but also those that “have received support from and (or) are under foreign influence”.

A further reading of the law does not offer much in the way of clarification. “Support” from foreign sources is defined not only as financial, but also as “organizational and methodological, or scientific and technical help”.

“Influence” can be read, according to the law, as “extending an influence over an individual by coercion, persuasion or other means”.

That’s the point, says Konstantin Von Eggert, a freelance Russian journalist who now lives in Lithuania. Laws like this that make up what he calls “Putin’s repressive system” are designed to be broad and vague, and selectively applied to “scare and paralyze”.

“Since the laws are enforced at all levels, you can quickly figure out how to beat the system,” he said. Whether the laws are “haphazardly or promptly applied, you don’t know.”

Andrey Soldatov, another exiled Russian journalist known for his investigative work in the Russian security services, says this is part of a crackdown directly related to Russia’s defeats in Ukraine.

“You cannot provide a really good narrative, an explanation of why Kherson was abandoned,” he said. “The best way to do this is to add an element of fear.”

intensified repression

The further erosion of free speech and democratic freedoms in Russia went hand in hand with what the Kremlin euphemistically calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine almost from the start.

Within days of the invasion, Russia restricted access to Facebook, some Western news sites and independent media in the country. Peaceful protests were quickly ended and thousands arrested.

In early March, the government adopted a law criminalizing the dissemination of what it called “deliberately false” information about the Russian armed forces. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison. THE CNN and several other Western news organizations temporarily suspended broadcasts from Russia.

Defending “traditional values” – part of Putin’s argument for launching the war in Ukraine – has also proved to be another pretext for further repression at home since the invasion.

In his speech on February 24, the day the war began, Putin claimed that the United States and the West “sought to destroy our traditional values ​​and impose on us their false values ​​that would corrode us”.

This week, the speaker of Russia’s lower house, the State Duma, said a new law expanding a 2013 ban on “propaganda” of LGBT issues, pedophilia and gender reassignment to minors and adults “would protect our children, the future of our country from the darkness spread across the United States and European states.”

Human Rights Watch warned that the law would have a “an even more suffocating effect on freedom of expression, well-being and security”.

The expanded foreign agent law is now an even more powerful tool in Russia’s legislative toolbox to align its population with its goals.

Any person or organization designated as a foreign agent (a phrase that carries clear Soviet overtones in Russia) will be banned from many teaching jobs, unable to organize public events or receive state funding for projects.

The law also prohibits any material published by a foreign agent from being distributed to minors. It shall be marked with an 18+ stamp and sold in an opaque sealed package in accordance with State Duma🇧🇷

And the Russian Ministry of Justice will now publish the personal details of designated foreign agents, according to state media — not just names and dates of birth, but taxpayer identification numbers and individual insurance account numbers (similar to a social security number). Social).

Soldatov says the expanded law could be designed to target officials at state institutions. “If you get put on this list, it won’t be a big deal if you’re just an average guy,” he says.

But if you’re a “doctor or professor or professor at some university, that’s where you find yourself in a big problem, because you lose your job and it’s really really hard.”

Von Eggert, however, believes that the decision to expand the law now (it was signed by Putin in July) reveals its futility. “They missed the moment and those who were really active and who represented some danger, are either already arrested or are abroad. So who are they threatening? I don’t know.”

With Russia’s efforts in Ukraine faltering, he sees the law as “more a sign of weakness than a sign of strength”.