And they’re not particularly popular there, either . . . yet they’re proliferating in an atmosphere shockingly reminiscent of the Soviet days of old.

Annoyed with your neighbor? There’s an easy way to get rid of her — just accuse her of spreading fake news about the Russian army. That’s what happened to Anna, a 46-year-old hairdresser from Pushkin, who was charged with “the public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.” And the witness against her was her own neighbor. The two women had been friends for some time until arguments arose over a variety of issues. And this was the neighbor’s way of settling things: she denounced Anna to the authorities. [Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, September 12, 2024.]

In Moscow, Nadezhda, a 68-year-old pediatrician, was reported by the mother of a patient for saying something about Russian soldiers in Ukraine that upset the woman, whose ex-husband had been killed fighting in Ukraine. [Id.]

And an 87-year-old man was pulled off of a Moscow bus and beaten by a man who claimed to have overheard him make an insulting remark about Russian mercenaries fighting in Ukraine. The younger man and his son marched the elderly gentleman to the police, who fortunately — in an unusual instance — did not charge him. But he was obviously left shaken . . . and angry. [Id.]

The repressive regime of Vladimir Putin has become more onerous since the start of his “special military operation” — the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 — when he signed into law new legislation mandating the punishment for criticism of the military . . . specifically, for “discrediting the use of the Russian armed forces” or for spreading “knowingly false information” about the army. [Id.]

Putin also declared that “ . . . any nation, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like an insect in their mouth, spit them onto the pavement. I am convinced that a natural and necessary self-detoxification of society like this will strengthen our country, our solidarity and cohesion . . .” [Id.]

And thus began the spate of cases of Russians reporting one another — students informing on teachers, professors on students, workers on co-workers — for opposing the war in Ukraine. And the old fears have returned.

Nina Khrushcheva, professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York, has said:

“What I find remarkable is how quickly Russian genetic memory has come back, and how people who didn’t live in those times suddenly act as if they did. Suddenly they are squealing on others. It is a Soviet practice but it’s also something about the Russian genetic code, of fear, of trying to protect themselves at the expense of others.” [Id.]

Is it genetic, a peculiarly Russian trait? Or is it something learned, passed down from a generation who lived through it once before to succeeding generations, much like a religious belief, or a prejudice? I don’t know . . . but it is obviously destructive of a civil society.

And it is being, not merely tolerated, but actively encouraged by Vladimir Putin himself, in the most revolting terms.

I wonder how he’ll manage to blame this one on the West.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/14/24