Riot police surround people during a demonstration against Vladimir Putin in Moscow, on 5 May 2018. Photo: NurPhoto / SIPA USA / PA Images. All rights reserved.2018, a presidential election year in Russia, has become a year of increasing repressions. In February, details of the “Network case” – in which 11 Russian anarchists and anti-fascists are being investigated on charges of creating a terrorist organisation – became public. This organisation never existed, and even its name is a figment of an FSB officer’s imagination. The number of criminal cases for reposting “extremist” memes online is only growing (OVD-Info reported 170 such cases in 2017), and this practice is developing quicker in the provinces than in the big cities. Recently, in the Siberian town of Barnaul, there have been three cases opened against users of social networks.
The public campaign in support of people arrested in connection to the “Network case” started well, with several actions in different cities in Russia and across the world. But it has not moved beyond that. It is mainly human rights defenders, leftists and anarchists who are supporting these new political prisoners. Now it is time for a broader campaign against political repressions and fabricated criminal cases in Russia – a campaign that will go beyond individual cases, and that will go beyond solidarity based on personal sympathies towards this or that group of political prisoners.
Why do we think that it is time for a large-scale campaign?
Russian society’s understanding of repressions is changing, and it is changing visibly. Yes, the word “repressions” still has mainly historical connotations – something from the time of Stalinism, such as executions and deportations. But it is becoming more and more evident: imprisonment for reposting articles on social media, receiving five–seven years in prison for “thought-crimes” – this is the reality in Russia today, and it is not that far away from 10 years of prison camp for telling a joke or criticising the Stalinist bureaucracy.
