August 1988. A friend and I had joined a U.S. tour group to visit what was then still the Soviet Union. We began the four-city tour in Moscow, where we were shown the usual highlights: the Kremlin and Red Square, the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow State University in the Sparrow Hills, a couple of beautiful Orthodox cathedrals that had survived Stalin’s mad spree of destruction, and more. One day, as we were strolling along the charming street known as the Old Arbat, I noticed something on some of the buildings that struck a nerve: surveillance cameras. We were aware that our hotel rooms were probably bugged; but seeing these cameras on the streets, in the days before security CCTV invaded the rest of the world, removed any doubt that we were indeed in the land of Big Brother.

*. *. *

March 2024. They couldn’t stop the funeral . . .

. . . so they began the nationwide post-funeral sweep-up.

There are estimated to be hundreds of thousands of CCTV cameras in Moscow alone, allegedly for the purpose of identifying criminals and contributing to public safety. In the days just prior to Alexei Navalny’s funeral on March 1st, several additional cameras — likely enhanced with facial recognition technology — were installed in the area around the church and cemetery where the service and burial were to take place.

Since Navalny’s suspicious death in a Siberian penal colony on February 16th, more than 400 people have been detained for participating in peaceful protests across Russia. Additionally, during the past few days, at least five people have been detained after attending the funeral, including one woman on Monday of this week who was caught on camera chanting “glory to the heroes,” a pro-Ukraine slogan. She was fined and allowed to return home the following day; but she now has a criminal record. The fate of the others is as yet unknown.

Russian opposition activists are warning that the Kremlin is in the process of centralizing its surveillance system, and that, “If they digitalize all the databases and combine them to make this joint database, they can find everybody.” [Mathias Hammer, Semafor, March 5, 2024.]

Make no mistake: Vladimir Putin has no intention of allowing any sort of dissent to continue. Yet, in the days since Navalny’s funeral, hundreds of Russians have continued to visit his grave in defiance of Putin’s onerous new laws and regulations. As reported in Sobesednik — one of the few liberal Russian publications still in operation — there were “gigantic queues” and “mountains of flowers” at his grave site over the past weekend. [Id.]

The question now is: Who will prevail in this contest of wills . . . Big Brother, or the huge spirit and determination of the Russian people? We can continue to hope that it will be the latter; but only time will tell.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
3/7/24