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strategistMXPavel has always been interested in politics and has been involved in political life since the university, worked as an observer journalist at elections, went to rallies and protests, communicated with people involved in politics. He was even invited to participate in the selections in Ukraine, because he did a good job. He worked for US sponsored organisation named "GOLOS", which is now a foreign agent.
It was the first organisation to become a foreign agent in Russia.
The Movement for Defence of Voters' Rights "Golos", formerly GOLOS Association is a Russian organisation established in 2000 to protect the electoral rights of citizens and to foster civil society. As of 2008, the organisation covers 40 Russian regions. It is the only election watchdog active in Russia that is independent of the Russian government.
GOLOS was founded as an association of non-profit organizations in 2000 to support civil monitoring of elections.
Since 2002 GOLOS has monitored elections and referendums of all levels. The Telegraph describes GOLOS as being "one of the few organisations able to catalogue and publicise [the Kremlin's] attempts at fraud and intimidation".
The group publishes a newspaper called Grazhdansky Golos (Civil Voice)."
"Russia labels Golos vote movement as foreign agent, month before election
MOSCOW, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Russia's Justice Ministry said on Wednesday that it has declared the Golos independent vote-monitoring movement as a "foreign agent", just a month before the parliamentary election."
"The raid on the NGO Golos and repression of civil society in Russia: Statement to the PC
The United States is deeply troubled by the searches that were carried out on July 7 at the homes and offices of the staff of the Golos Association, Russia’s most prominent, independent election monitoring organization. Golos is a highly professional, non-partisan group that has worked for over a decade to promote transparency and integrity in Russia’s electoral processes. We join ODIHR Director Link in calling for participating States to promote, rather than restrict or obstruct, the work of independent election monitoring groups, such as Golos.
This incident is emblematic of the shrinking space for civil society activity in the Russian Federation.
The Russian government has taken several steps this year to further restrict, intimidate, and stigmatize Russian NGOs that represent independent views or whose work is perceived as running counter to the government’s interests. These measures, such as the law on “foreign or international undesirable organizations,” have been adopted under pretenses such as protecting national security, but, in effect, these laws stifle dissent and hamper civil society efforts to promote government transparency, accountability, and respect for human rights and democratic processes. Over 70 of the country’s most respected civil society organizations have been placed on the government’s registry of “foreign agents.”
No less worrisome is the ongoing harassment of and attacks against individual activists, journalists, and human rights defenders in Russia.
On June 3, police stood by as a large crowd ransacked the Grozny offices of the Committee Against Torture, a group that reports on human rights abuses in Chechnya, and which had to dissolve itself last week after being labeled a “foreign agent.”
On July 13, Yevgeny Khamaganov – a journalist and member of the opposition political party Yabloko – was badly beaten in Buryatia, his neck broken.
Mr. Chair, as participating States, we reaffirmed in Astana in 2010 “the important role played by civil society and free media in helping us to ensure full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy, including free and fair elections, and the rule of law.”
We call on the Government of Russia to uphold the international obligations and commitments it has undertaken to respect freedoms of expression and association, and we urge the Russian authorities to protect, rather than impede, the work of civil society.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As delivered by DCM Kate Byrnes to the OSCE Permanent Council, Vienna"
In Russia you can’t call a war with Ukraine a "War" because you can get fined or even sentenced.
"Do not call Ukraine invasion a ‘war’, Russia tells media, schools
Instead, ‘special military operation’ should be used to describe Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, according to officials.
As Russia’s bloody military operation against Ukraine nears the end of its first week, the Kremlin has been working hard to promote its version of events in the face of widespread indignation and an anti-war movement at home, which has seen nearly 7,000 people arrested across the country since the conflict began on Thursday.
For instance, a statement by Russia’s internet censor board, Roskomnadzor, warns that referring to the ongoing military campaign as an “invasion”, “attack” or “declaration of war” will lead to the offending website being blocked.
Since Tuesday, schools across Russia have hosted special war-themed social studies classes, where teachers must tell schoolchildren between the seventh and 11th grades the official government’s position on history and what the Kremlin deems the “special operation”.
The lessons are guided by manuals distributed through the school system that outline the approved version of events.
According to one such manual, the contents of which were published by the independent Russian media outlet MediaZona, the Ukrainian nation did not exist until the 20th century and in 2014 suffered a bloody coup d’état that installed an American puppet regime.
The story goes that after the self-described Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine rose up against it, they were besieged and subjected to a “genocide” for eight years, which Russia is now preventing through a “special peacekeeping operation” (the materials explicitly state this is “not a war”).
The manual also mentions NATO and how Russian security concerns were ignored by Washington as another reason for the necessary military operation, as well as Ukraine’s capacity, under its current, rabidly anti-Russian leadership, to build nuclear weapons.
A source at a school in a Russian city told Al Jazeera by phone that they had received similar manuals and, in a public school, teachers had no choice but to carry out these lessons in the framework of history or social studies, and provide proof they are doing so.
As in the approved media narrative, they are not allowed to refer to the ongoing military campaign as a war or invasion, but as a “special operation”.
The source added that the opinions among teachers vary depending on their age, but even among those who generally support President Vladimir Putin there are those who are horrified by the war.
Additionally, parents have received letters from their children’s schools, warning them to keep an eye on their children’s consumption of social media such as TikTok where they may be encouraged to use the hashtag #нетвойне (“no to war”) and be drawn into “unsafe” protests, as well as be exposed to other malfeasance such as “suicide flash mobs, detailed instructions on gender reassignment, and promotion of same-sex relationships”.
In recent years, promoting military and patriotic education to the nation’s youth has been a priority.
A uniformed “Youth Army” was formed in 2015. Hundreds of thousands of children aged eight to 18 were taught how to use weapons and instilled with patriotic values at regularly-attended camps."
"Russian law bans journalists from calling Ukraine conflict a 'war' or an 'invasion'
In order to control what the Russian public knows about invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that imposes stiff sentences on journalists who air "false information."
Free speech and reporting may be another casualty of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and President Putin signed a law making the airing of what the government calls false information about the armed forces illegal. Journalists could be jailed for up to 15 years. Russian officials assert it's false to call their military operations in Ukraine a war or an invasion. Several Western news outlets say they've suspended reporting from Russia while they assess the law and the safety of their employees.
Tim Davie, director general of the BBC, said this legislation appears to criminalize the process of independent journalism. Many independent Russian voices have shut down, including the Echo of Moscow radio station, which had over a million daily listeners, TV Rain and the Znak news outlet. Novaya Gazeta, which has seen six of its journalists killed over the past two decades and whose editor, Dmitry Muratov, shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize, said it was deleting its war coverage from its website. And even The Village, a digital lifestyle site, says it is editing its old posts to change any mention of war to special operation."
You can't use this word on social networks at all.
"Detenidos en Rusia por mostrar folios en blanco
Los manifestantes siguen siendo arrestados por exhibir pancartas sin mensaje como protesta por la invasión de Ucrania
Las manifestaciones contra la guerra de Ucrania se suceden por todo el planeta. Pero especialmente reseñables son las que siguen celebrándose en Rusia, a pesar de que los manifestantes se arriesgan a ser detenidos. Ya son casi 15.000 las personas arrestadas en los últimos días. La represión contra aquellos que se oponen a la guerra en el país vecino está alcanzando dimensiones absurdas. En las últimas horas Moscú está deteniendo a quienes muestran un folio en blanco. Muchos de los manifestantes llevan folios o pequeñas pancartas sin mensajes en protesta por las leyes que prevén sanciones de hasta 15 años de cárcel por protestar contra la actuación de las Fuerzas Armadas rusas. «Han sido arrestados y les han torcido los brazos, a muchos les han quitado los teléfonos y la policía ha exigido que mostrar la documentación», denuncian desde OVD-Info. También otro vídeo difundido en redes sociales muestra a una joven que es detenida por mostrar un folio en el que se puede leer 'dos palabras'. Y el caso de una mujer interceptada por la policía tras hacer declaraciones a una cámara de televisión
En Moscú ha sido detenido el pianista Luka Zatravkin por esposarse a el restaurante McDonald's más antiguo de Rusia, el ubicado en la plaza Pushkin de Moscú. «Nos privan de las ideas de democracia y de los valores de los derechos humanos y nos demuestran así que la libertad es una ficción», ha reprochado Zatravkin en un manifiesto publicado en redes sociales antes de su detención. «Las hamburguesas de McDonald's se están convirtiendo en un símbolo de la violación de las libertades», ha remachado, según recoge OVD-Info.
En San Petersburgo ha sido detenido un hombre identificado como Dimitri J. por una pintada de «No a la guerra» y «Putin es un fascista» en el monumento al Soldado Soviético Desconocido dedicado a la defensa de Leningrado, nombre soviético de la ciudad, en la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
En la ciudad de Rostov del Don, cerca de la frontera con Ucrania, se han registrado viviendas de los activistas Tatiana Sporisheva y Boris Papayan, mientras que a Elena Belan le han confiscado sus posesiones, siempre según OVD-Info.
El Ministerio del Interior de Rusia avisó a los ciudadanos rusos el 24 de febrero, fecha del inicio de la invasión, de que las autoridades tomarán «todas las medidas necesarias» para mantener la ley y el orden en las protestas y advirtió de que la Policía detendrá a todos los participantes en acciones no autorizadas si se llevan a cabo acciones «provocativas o agresivas» contra los agentes."
If people are talking about politics or the war in Russia, then you need to use "Telegram" social network, because many other social networks are tapped and messages are sent to the police there.
One day they came to my friend's house because he joined a group in support of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny. He was warned that if he participated in the rally, he could go to jail.
There are a lot of fake people on Russian social networks who write provocative angry comments for money to provoke people. Usually it deals with political and social topics.
"‘Troll factory’ spreading Russian pro-war lies online, says UK
St Petersburg outfit hijacks discussions on Twitter, TikTok, world leaders’ social accounts and media websites, as well as manipulating opinion polls.
Russian internet trolls based in an old arms factory in St Petersburg are targeting world leaders online and spreading support for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the British government has said, citing research.
Online operatives were found to be ordering followers to target western media outlets and politicians, according to research funded by the UK government, which plans to share it with major online platforms and other governments.
The troll factory is suspected to be linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Internet Research Agency accused of meddling in the 2016 election that saw Donald Trump win the presidency. The headquarters is allegedly located in rented space in St Petersburg’s Arsenal Machine-building Factory, a company that manufactures military equipment and technology.
The study details how the Russian president’s regime is trying to manipulate public opinion on social media, as well as in the comments sections of major media outlets.
Targets include the social media accounts of Boris Johnson, the British prime minister; the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz; and the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.
The research said TikTok influencers were being paid to amplify pro-Kremlin narratives. Operatives also amplified genuine messages by legitimate social media users that happen to be consistent with the Kremlin’s viewpoint – seemingly to evade social media platforms’ measures to combat disinformation.
The analysis suggests one main activity is “brigading”, to steer attention of discussion on social media and in comments sections of newspapers towards favoured opinions. Manipulation of polls in western media was also observed, including to skew the results of a survey on whether sanctions against Russia were supported.
Activities on Twitter and Facebook were detected, but were found to be particularly concentrated on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. A key role in the network is said to be performed by a Telegram channel called “Cyber Front Z”, with the letter Z signifying Russian support for the war.
Social media accounts of bands and musicians including Daft Punk, David Guetta, Tiesto and Rammstein appear to have been targeted by the disinformation operation.
Researchers say the group seems to have learned from the tactics used by QAnon conspiracy theorists and from the Islamic State terror group.
The troll farm is said to recruit and hire salaried workers openly, justifying the work as “patriotic activity” in support of the “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said: “We cannot allow the Kremlin and its shady troll farms to invade our online spaces with their lies about Putin’s illegal war.
“The UK government has alerted international partners and will continue to work closely with allies and media platforms to undermine Russian information operations.”
The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, said: “These are insidious attempts by Putin and his propaganda machine to deceive the world about the brutality he’s inflicting on the people of Ukraine.
“This evidence will help us to more effectively identify and remove Russian disinformation and follows our decisive action to block anyone from doing business with Kremlin-controlled outlets RT and Sputnik.”
The Foreign Office was not identifying the researchers behind the work amid concerns over their safety for conducting work critical of the Russian president’s regime.
With the Press Association"
Almost all of my clients and companies I work for are foreign. After the war began and sanctions were announced, it became practically impossible to receive money from abroad. All bank cards and payment systems were blocked.
My job at TELUS has been cut short because they haven't been able to find a way to pay employees from Russia for 4 months now.
Also, the company told all employees to suspend their work starting from March 20, 2022, because they need Google Play to work, which is also partially blocked and there is no way to buy applications because the cards are blocked. Thus, I have not been able to work in this company for 4 months.
Getting money for your work in other companies and from people is also very difficult. Need to ask people from other countries or those with residence permits in Mexico or other countries to get money for me, losing big commissions.
As a citizen of the Russian Federation, I do not have free access to the banking system and cannot work freely.
With the outbreak of the war, I was not even able to open an account in a Turkish bank, even with a residence permit. Many organizations refuse Russians to open accounts, as well as transfers and receive money (Western Union).
Pavel was able to open a Turkish bank account a month later and only after making a very large deposit. This card is now lost or stolen.
In Russia, for an anti-war position, for a non-traditional orientation, for a positive attitude towards the LGBT community, for receiving money from abroad, they can write a denunciation.
"Soviet-Style Denunciations On The Rise As Russian Society Confronts Ukraine War
"I think that I acted properly," said Irina Gen, a 45-year-old English teacher from Penza, a Volga region city of about half a million people. "I don't regret it. The only problem is that I didn't manage to reach the minds of our students."
Gen is under criminal prosecution for discussing Russia's war in Ukraine with a group of eighth-graders on March 18. One of the students recorded the conversation and released it publicly, prompting prosecutors to file criminal charges that she disseminated "demonstrably false information about the armed forces of the Russian Federation."
Specifically, Gen was charged for mentioning Russia's March 9 air strike on a maternity hospital in the Azov Sea port of Mariupol -- an incident that Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers who questioned her claimed, without evidence, was “fake.”
She could face up to 15 years in prison under a new law enacted by President Vladimir Putin shortly after Russia's February 24 invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Gen is just one of a growing number of teachers, activists, and others who have faced similar denunciations -- some of them issued anonymously -- as the Russian government expands its crackdown on information and dissenting opinions about the war in Ukraine, in which thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers on both sides have been killed.
Teachers, activists, and others in Russia have increasingly been targeted by denunciations – often anonymous – that remind some of the darkest repressions under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
The developments inside Russia have many Kremlin critics comparing the current crackdown to the darkest political repressions under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
In a speech to government ministers on March 16, Putin called for a "natural and necessary self-cleansing of society” and said that Russians “will always be able to distinguish patriots from scum and traitors and to spit them out like a fly that accidentally flew into their mouths."
"We have reached a time of denunciations," Gen said. "And we understand that perfectly."
"I think this all originated with their parents," Gen told RFE/RL's Idel.Realities. "That is, one child in some conversation mentioned that their English teacher had a completely different point of view. I know that a parent of one student in that class works for the [FSB].
"I think they were sent to record me…and 'leak' it to law enforcement," she said. "That is my opinion, but I am sure of it 100 percent."
After 10 years at the school, Gen quit her job, saying, "It wasn't very nice working in a school where such an unpleasant thing happened."
Shades Of 1937
In Astrakhan, a city on the upper delta where the Volga River pours into the Caspian Sea, mathematics teacher Yelena Baibekova was fired on April 1 after her school's administrators claimed that unnamed students had complained about "political discussions" in her classes. Baibekova was not shown the complaint.
Although she says she participates in anti-war demonstrations in her free time, she denies ever discussing politics in school. Baibekova told RFE/RL that other staff members at the school had been trying to get her fired for some time because of her dissident political opinions.
Yelena Baibekova was fired on April 1 after her school's administrators claimed that unnamed students had complained about "political discussions" in her classes.
"The accusations against me are completely made up. I told the director of the school that now I know what the people looked like who wrote denunciations in 1937," she said, referring to the peak of Stalin's Great Terror, when millions of Soviet citizens were arrested on the flimsiest of pretexts. "She responded that now she knows what fascists and traitors to the motherland look like."
In his 1982 novella The Zone, dissident Soviet journalist and writer Sergei Dovlatov wrote: "We endlessly curse Comrade Stalin and for good reason. But nonetheless I'd like to ask -- who wrote the 4 million denunciations?…. They were written by ordinary Soviet people."
Dormer police officer and history teacher Andrei Shestakov: "I don’t think the student did this intentionally to cause me problems. Most likely, the student just wanted to learn his or her parents' opinion."
In the eastern Siberian town of Neryungri, former police officer and history teacher Andrei Shestakov lost his job at the end of March when school administrators asked him to resign after he was convicted of the administrative offense of spreading "false information" about the Ukraine war on social media. He was fined 35,000 rubles ($420). He has appealed his conviction.
Shestakov, who had been fired from the police earlier for his support of imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, told RFE/RL that he had discussed Ukraine's democratic elections and peaceful power transitions in a recent 11th-grade social studies class. After students told their parents about the discussion, they filed complaints to the police, the FSB, and the prosecutor's office. Shestakov was not shown the complaints and does not know who filed them.
There are many variations of these scenarios, but they are all predictable and they are all based on one thing: fear."
-- Human rights activist Rostislav Pavlishchev
"I don’t think the student did this intentionally to cause me problems," Shestakov said. "Most likely, the student just wanted to learn his or her parents' opinion. Sort of, 'We were discussing such-and-such in school today -- what do you think?' And the parents were extremely negative that such things were discussed at all and about my views."
In late March, English teacher Marina Dubrova, who worked in the Sakhalin Island town of Korsakov, was fired for discussing the war with her students after one of them recorded her class and a parent filed a complaint. She was also fined 30,000 rubles ($360) for the administrative violation of spreading "fake" information.
Dubrova told RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities that she was "horrified" by the anger expressed by students when discussing the war in Ukraine, as well as by official Education Ministry instructions on how to discuss what the Kremlin euphemistically calls a "special military operation."
'A Close Friend'
The wave of denunciations has not only affected teachers.
In the North Caucasus city of Nalchik, a married couple named Oksana and Aleksandr Veselov were in a cafeteria discussing the death of a relative who had been serving as a volunteer in Ukraine's Territorial Defense Force outside Kyiv.
Four women sitting at a nearby table began cursing the couple and then called the police. When the police officer who arrived refused to detain them, the offended women called the FSB. An FSB agent arrived and also declined to detain them.
The women then called the police a second time. This time, a patrol officer agreed to write up Oksana and Aleksandr for "petty hooliganism." Aleksandr was later charged under the "fake" information law for purportedly telling the officer that the Russian Army had illegally entered Ukrainian territory. He was convicted and fined 30,000 rubles ($360).
In the Volga region city of Naberezhnye Chelny, 30-year-old IT specialist Albina Ardakhanova was also fined 30,000 rubles ($360) earlier this month after a neighbor complained to police that she had a sign reading "No to war" on her balcony.
In the southern city of Krasnodar, local activist Konstantin Trudnik left Russia earlier this month after a person that he described as "a close friend" wrote a denunciation to police against him that claimed Trudnik was "against Putin."
"The growing number of denunciations is predictable," said human rights activist Rostislav Pavlishchev, who is based in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and who was himself briefly jailed in December because of an anonymous denunciation.
"In some cases, we are talking about anonymous denunciations that, most likely, are written by the police themselves," he said. "In other cases, the complainants are frightened public-sector workers who are forced by police or their bosses to write denunciations. Some denunciations are written by fake 'activists' who are cooperating with the Anti-Extremism Center. There are many variations of these scenarios, but they are all predictable and they are all based on one thing: fear."
"Anti-war stance in Russia leads to denunciations and arrests
In Russia, critics of the war in Ukraine are increasingly being reported to the police. DW spoke with Russians who have been betrayed by their own relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbors.
In the wake of Russia's February 24 invasion of neighboring Ukraine, some citizens have taken a stance against what they call an unjust war of aggression. As a result, they have suffered the consequences in a society where state propaganda is ubiquitous, the use of the term "war" is forbidden, and those who dare to speak out against the Kremlin's "special operation" face long jail terms. DW spoke to three individuals about their personal run-ins with authorities after being denounced by family, neighbors and colleagues.
'At the moment, a lot of people are going crazy'
Kirill, 32, senior IT systems analyst from Moscow
When the "special operation" started, I was horrified and I wrote various social media posts against the war in Ukraine. One of my relatives, who is a big fan of Vladimir Putin, was quick to respond. He even has a portrait of Putin in his house — just like in schools and state institutions in Russia. He spammed me with all kinds of propaganda videos on WhatsApp. It was simply unbearable. At first I ignored it, then I contradicted him, and finally I just archived everything.
One day, the police knocked on my door. They said that there was a complaint against me and that I should come with them. At the police station, I was shown screenshots of my Instagram account and of my correspondence with this relative. Then the police officers asked, "Is this your relative?" I said, "Yes."
I learned that it was not the first time relatives had complained about people who were anti-war. The policemen admitted that they themselves were afraid of being sent to Ukraine. In the end, they let me go. But I've now changed the settings on my social media accounts so that my posts are only accessible to friends. The incident has unsettled me ever since.
It wasn't the denunciation that upset me but rather the fact that people are not willing to accept your opinion, and instead are ready to do anything they can to still change your mind. That is the most difficult thing.
I don't know anyone among my friends and colleagues who supports this "special operation” in Ukraine. Problems often arise with relatives who work in government agencies, watch state television and only know this one point of view.
The relative who betrayed me is now blacklisted on my WhatsApp list. But we continue to communicate. I am not someone who holds grudges. He just has a Soviet mindset and feels admiration for a certain kind of leader. I advise people who experience something like this to remain human. At the moment, a lot of people are going crazy, but you have to forgive them and not become like that yourself.
Even before the war, I thought about leaving Russia. I thought about going to Serbia. But I can't leave my family behind. They definitely don't want to leave. Somewhere deep inside me, I also want to stay in Russia. It is a beautiful country, but just not under this regime.
'My father reported me to the police'
Anna, 21, Moscow student
I got a phone call from my aunt on April 10, saying that the police had come to our house and wanted to talk to me. She passed the phone to a policeman and he told me that my father had reported me — allegedly for writing posts against the war, discrediting the Russian army and calling for the killing of Russians. I did write several social media posts, but none called for any such action. While the policeman said my father was drunk, my aunt shouted in the background that he was an alcoholic after all.
By the time I got to the police station, the investigators were pretty annoyed by my father. The supposed proof was that someone from Thailand had allegedly called my father and told him about my posts. While I was at the police station, my father wrote me messages saying that he had been framed. The station chief eventually let me go.
The next day, my father called me to ask how I was doing. I said not very well because he had turned me in. He replied, "You weren't jailed, were you?"
I grew up with my grandmother and my aunt. I often visited my father when we were still in touch. In 2014, we watched the Olympics from Sochi together and also talked about Ukraine and the Maidan protest movement. Even then I had opposing views and argued with my father. However, he just laughed at my political views, but it was not aggressive.
He lived with us for a while and and I was really fed up with him. When I was 13, I ran away from home because he threatened to gouge out my eyes, and the police just never came. None of the adults ever wanted to believe me when I said he drank too much.
Now we have a situation in the country where there is war, terrible things are happening, and people don't want to see it because it is hard for them to accept it. I have a severe depression anyway, and now my personal situation is overlaid by the one in the whole country. I feel even worse. At some point I want to leave, but right now I don't have the means. People in Russia should be more careful, even when dealing with their own relatives because they, too, can report you to the police.
'I don't want my child to go to school in Russia anymore'
Xenia, 30, former teacher from Rostov-on-Don
On February 28, I put two flags on my balcony on the 16th floor and painted one in Russian colors and one in Ukrainian. On March 2, I started to paste leaflets with the words "No to war" at the entrance of the house and in the elevator. By March 4, the police arrived. They said that neighbors had reported those flags and said that I was a terrorist. The policemen looked at the flags and that was it. After that, I continued to paste the leaflets, but someone kept tearing them down.
On March 20, when I was teaching at school, the police came to the principal. I had to go with them to the police station. Our janitor had sent the police photos from the surveillance cameras in the elevator of our apartment building. After a warning, I was allowed to go back to school. There, school authorities gave me paper and pen and told me to write my resignation. The principal said that if I was so against the state, then I shouldn't work for it, and the school was, after all, a state institution. Since then, I have been living on state handouts and am careful with whom I talk with about these issues.
Russian security forces have been rounding up anti-war protesters and taking them into custody
I don't want to stay in Russia and I'm going to undertake something this summer so that my child doesn't go to school in Russia anymore. Of course, I explain to my daughter what is really happening in the country and in the world. I used to go to protests in our city so that she could have a better future.
At the moment I am completely confused, I have no savings and I don't know what to do."
"Why Russians are denouncing opponents of Ukraine invasion
Denunciations in Russia began soon after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of neighboring Ukraine. DW spoke with an anthropologist, a psychologist and a historian about people's motivations for turning dissidents in.
Authorities have cracked down on dissent; now, neighbors and family members do it, too
A father turns in his daughter because she is against the invasion of Ukraine. A man reports a co-worker to police after the two argue about the war. Another man lodges a complaint against a friend following a post on the social media network VKontakte mocking the letter "Z," which has been established as the symbol of the Kremlin's "special military operation" in Ukraine. In each case, denunciations were followed by police questioning, but none have led to trial.
Nevertheless, such denunciations can have grave consequences. In one of the most well-known cases, an elderly woman lodged a complaint about anti-war slogans printed on supermarket price tags. As a result, Sasha Skochilenko, the artist behind the tactic, sits in pretrial detention, facing up to 10 years in prison.
Alexandra Arkhipova, who runs the Telegram channel (Non)Entertaining Anthropology, said denunciations came in two forms: "One where a person reports something directly to the police — for instance, they might say, 'Peter listens to Ukrainian radio at night.' The second form is when people make public declarations — such as on social media platforms."
Psychologist Potudina says people who denounce others may have low self-esteem
'Letting aggression out'
The psychologist Maria Potudina told DW that denunciations can serve as a vent of sorts. "In Russia, it has been impossible to directly express one's discontent for quite some time," she said. "Denunciations are a reliable means for letting aggression out — even if they are not directed at any one individual. It allows people to differentiate themselves from others, protect their own surroundings from alternative opinions, to create order, practice control, and punish 'evil' people the state sees as 'traitors.'"
More than anything, Potudina said, denunciations are about having power over the fate of others. She said that by denouncing others people with low self-esteem can "deputize themselves" to assume greater authority.
The psychologist cited Gaspar Avakyan, a blogger who denounced the popular Russian actor and comedian Maxim Galkin for speaking out against the invasion. Investigators are currently reviewing the complaint. Galkin fled to Israel shortly after the invasion began on February 24.
Arkhipova said there were multiple motivations for reporting people. "Denunciations are also made to facilitate material advance, exact petty revenge or fulfill a perceived need for self-preservation," she said. "During the Soviet era, not reporting someone was a crime. Thirdly and most difficult, is when someone denounces for ideological reasons."
She said ideologically motivated denunciations were extremely widespread in Russia. "We're talking about reporting political offenses on which there is no consensus in society and for which one can be harshly penalized," Arkhipova said.
More than 2,000 cases of "discrediting" the Russian army have been opened since early March. According to activists from the independent Russian project OVD-Info, which is dedicated to fighting political persecution, fines issued in these cases have averaged 35,000 rubles (€530/$540).
Pavel Tschikov, who runs the human rights project Agora, said Russian courts dealt with roughly 40 such cases each day. There are also dozens of investigations into "fake" accounts of the war. No one has been convicted to date, but maximum sentences can be up to 15 years in prison. Most of the cases now being heard began with denunciations.
Anthropologist Arkhipova says denunciations are increasingly ideologically motivated
Incentives to denounce?
Sergey Bondarenko, a historian with the human rights organization Memorial, said denunciations were taking place in a much more public way than during the Soviet era, which treated such actions as a hidden instrument of power. He said the situation was now more complicated — but the fact that people can end up in prison makes it no less dangerous.
People who engage in denunciations are often seeking to settle scores or gain favor with authorities, Bondarenko said, and they do so with the expectation that the government will act. "The state's threats and promises give people the clear impression that it is possible or even necessary to denounce others," Bondarenko said. "It incentivizes them."
Potudina and Arkhipova share Bondarenko's assessment. "The president's speeches about traitors to the nation embolden people to come forward with denunciations," Potudina.
Arkhipova called people who engage in denunciations at the behest of President Vladimir Putin "a tool in the cold civil war that is raging in Russia."
"The president says we have domestic enemies and we need to find them," Arkhipova said. "The people go looking for them and find them, thus comforting themselves. It allows them to show their true political allegiance and that makes them content."
Arkhipova said there was no general age or gender profile for Russians who engage in denunciations. "One would think this is something only elderly people might do, but more or less everybody does it," she said. Recently, in the Kaliningrad region, a denunciation bot was tested on Telegram. This immediately led to a flood of denunciations for "discrediting the army" in what had been a relatively quiet region.
People are being denounced with ever greater frequency for casual talk on the street or in schoolyards or even singing the wrong songs, Arkhipova said. In such cases, the denunciations themselves are the only evidence available.
"For many Russians there is no war," Arkhipova said. "They just have their weekend house, garden, children and grandchildren — but no war. For them, war is when one's own kids go hungry, when you have to go to the front and when your house is bombed. That is a very comfortable perspective."
Arkhipova said such denialism allowed people to cope with life in contemporary Russia. "It's very difficult to admit being the citizen of a country under whose name an insane and schizophrenic war is being waged," she said. "That all destroys the basis for loyalty to the state."
Bondarenko said television had blurred the lines between real and unreal for many Russians. "Lots of people have no idea what horrific crimes are being committed," he said. "Most of the time, they convince themselves that such news is fabricated."
Potudina also credited propaganda for people's unwillingness to engage with the facts. And, she said, many Russians also feel powerless. "If you see that you have done great damage, you have to do something to correct it," she said. "But what can the average Russian do? Grab a pitchfork and head for the Kremlin? They won't get very far. It is difficult to constantly be forced to live with the knowledge that one's own country is killing innocent people."
Potudina urges avoiding categories such as "good" Russians and "bad" Russians. People in Russia, she said, are clinging to false narratives in a desperate attempt to avoid confronting the truth.
You can be denounced by both neighbors and acquaintances who do not share your position. This is highly encouraged on TV in propaganda TV shows.
Recently there was a new police law introduced in Russia which made life of people and my life more insecure.
"Russia Allows Police to Search Homes, Cars Without Warrants
Russia has passed legislation granting police the right to break into homes and cars without a search warrant.
According to the law President Vladimir Putin signed on Tuesday, officers can now enter homes without a warrant even if persons inside are not officially classified as suspects.
The latest law grants police officers the power to search personal belongings “if there are grounds to suspect” that they may be holding drugs, explosives or stolen goods.
Police can also open vehicles to save lives, fight crime and terrorism, as well as ensure safety during situations of mass unrest or emergencies.
Persons who come into contact with Russian police officers are required to give their full names and provide identity documents when asked, according to the law.
Police officers are also authorized to cordon off not only crime scenes, but also mass gatherings and other vaguely defined areas deemed “dangerous” for citizens.
Lawmakers say the changes to Russia’s law on police grants law enforcement officers the same powers as the National Guard.
Putin signed the legislation 1.5 years after lawmakers submitted the controversial bill for consideration.
Putin’s Human Rights Commission has criticized the law as a pathway toward arbitrary detention."
Before leaving Russia for Turkey, we were interrogated for a long time and rudely. They asked questions: where and for how long are you flying? What are you going to do? What's your job? When are you coming back? How much money do you have with you? They looked at passports for a very long time and did not want to let them out. After a long conversation, we were let through.
Officially in Russia, such things are prohibited by law.
It is very important to note that my fiancee Pavel is a conscript and he has already been called to the war, having sent a summons on April 22. Summons were also sent to his friends and classmates, as well as to our friends and my sister's husband from another region (Bryansk). Several people from our circle have already fled abroad (Georgia, Turkey, Indonesia). Some friends collect money and are going to leave in the near future and live in places remote from big cities and the police, in villages.
In 2016, we left to live and work in China, the city of Quanzhou. Pavel worked as an English teacher at school, and I worked as an illustrator at Art Forest.
This is an industrial city where a lot of stone is produced. The air is very bad there and sometimes you couldn't see the sky on a sunny day. Already on the 2nd month of life there, we began to have a strong cough. After 6 months we left for Russia, but a very strong cough continued for another 6 months. We were examined by many doctors and no one could find the cause and its solution. We drank a lot of different medicines, but nothing helped. The cough went away on its own after a long time. Now our lungs feel really bad from smog.