#repression in russia

[tomorrowusa]

A reminder: DICTATORS WILL NOT KEEP YOU SAFE

Some people think that letting a dictator run the country will keep them safe. But a dictator's primary motivation is to accrue personal wealth and power – not to benefit the country or its people.

Vladimir Putin's ambition is to become known as the Peter the Great of the 21st century. He aims to achieve that by restoring the territory and hegemony of the decrepit Soviet Union. So far, Putin's invasion has cost hundreds of thousands of Russian lives, has been a serious drain on the country's resources, and has caused Russia's international reputation to plummet.

The Kremlin casts President Vladimir Putin as something close to a savior, a strong leader who has brought stability and security following the chaos of the Soviet collapse. The mass-casualty events that have punctuated his nearly 25 years as president or prime minister -- and the recurring images of explosions, flames, and helpless victims desperate to escape harm -- badly undermine that narrative. Instead, analysts say, they tell a story of a leader whose focus on the protection and prolongation of his own power have come at the expense of the security of the people. Putin’s critics say that more than three decades after the demise of the Soviet Union, Russia remains a country in which the state puts its own interests far above those of its citizens. The biggest example is the war against Ukraine: Before the full-scale invasion of February 2022, when Russia was massing tens of thousands of troops at the border and the United States was warning that the onslaught could begin any day, many observers predicted Putin would hold back because a massive attack would harm Russia’s security, not improve it.

Putin's secret police are too busy hunting dissidents, liberals, anti-war activists, and gays to be much concerned about genuine security threats. And this culture of repression was already in place before Putin started the war.

This leaves Russia highly vulnerable to real extremists, analysts say, and to deadly disasters in which corruption, corner-cutting, and negligence cause or exacerbate the effects of avoidable accidents like the fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo in March 2018, seven days after Putin was declared the winner of that month's presidential election. “The intelligence services are focused on political investigation and intimidation of citizens. They do not fulfill their direct responsibility to protect society from real threats,” Russian political observer Dmitry Kolezev wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Putin's control of media has made sure that nobody can criticize the way things are run. So everything the government does is publicly portrayed as wonderful. Then when something goes badly wrong and is too big to cover up, people are puzzled at how such a thing could possibly take place.

The March 22 attack at the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow “looks like a grandiose failure” on the part of the state, he wrote. “Fantastic amounts of money are spent on ‘security,’ but in reality, this security is not provided.” Under different circumstances, the political opposition and independent journalists would press the government on this problem, seeing to ensure that security forces do their job and that money is not misspent, Kolezev wrote. “Unfortunately, neither of these groups has access to national television, where they could speak quite loudly about this.” Instead of serving as checks on the state authorities, in other words, these groups are their targets. “Russian security personnel have been trained to look at specific, politically important ‘threats,’” Andras Toth-Czifra, a fellow with the Eurasia Program at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, wrote on X, adding that “due to resource/time/manpower constraints this means that they have less capacity to look at and prevent actual threats.”

When dictators are responsible to no one, they have no obligation to act responsibly.

Putin’s sluggish reaction to the Kursk submarine disaster during his first year in office is an example, and experts say bungled responses to the Nord-Ost theater attack in Moscow in 2002 and the Beslan school hostage crisis in North Ossetia in 2004 increased the casualty counts. The predominance of the priorities of the state and its senior leaders over the interests of citizens is not a new problem: It stretches back to Soviet times and the tsarist era, and it’s a phenomenon that dissidents, rights activists, and opposition politicians say must be reversed if Russia and its people are to thrive. But Kremlin critics say it has become more pronounced as Putin’s rule drags on. Among other things, they point to the war in Ukraine, which has caused hundreds of thousands of Russian casualties even as Putin, securing a new six-year term in what opponents and analysts say was a tightly controlled vote marred by millions of falsified votes, used the election to portray himself as the indispensable leader of a deeply united country.

[folklorespring]

When I was a teenager, I used to be in a lot of internet spaces with russians and every time I look back on that I think to myself wow they never saw me and other Ukrainians as actual human beings, let alone equals to them. Even in so-called progressive communities where they condemn state's policies, while actively benefiting from them and having the same imperial mindset. It's so embarrassing to remember the interactions from that period. I remember fake laughing at jokes at my expense and feel disgusted. I remember seeing performative hate for putin while they go on vacations in occupied territories, their usage of ethnic slurs "as a joke", the constant mocking of Ukrainian language, forcing the "we're brotherly nations" notion, claiming art, culture and cuisine from colonised countries as their own and then saying "you all are uncultured, where are your famous artists?", being nice-ish to you when you stay in line, but once you point out the wrongs their country is doing they turn to belittling you and your struggles. All I feel from those memories is humiliation.

[odinsblog]

“This brutal war is not only mass murder of people and destruction of the infrastructure, economy, and cultural sites of Ukraine, but also a severe blow to the future of Russia, a country that is now pushed back into totalitarianism, but this time into a fascist totalitarianism.

We are being punished for daring to criticize authority.” —Oleg Orlov

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Cheryl LaBash

At issue is the right of people in the United States to speak, write, and organize disagreement with the federal government’s policies and practices — particularly its foreign policy — and associate with co-thinkers internationally.

Don’t let the government use its massive anti-Russia propaganda to win this attack on all who fight for peace and just causes. Uhuru owns a 50-year history of exposing genocide against Black communities, international collaboration, and organizing.

[nando161mando]

[libertyvigil]

Disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings of civilians have been taking place on the Crimean peninsula since the beginning of the occupation. The first victim was Reshat Ametov, a Crimean Tatar activist who, on March 3, 2014, went on a single picket against the occupation on Lenin Square in Simferopol. From there, he was kidnapped by three people from the so–called “Crimea self–defence units” (a paramilitary formation organised by agents of the Russian Federation during the occupation), who approached Ametov, took him out of the square, twisted him, put him in a car and drove him in an unknown direction.

On March 15, his body with traces of torture was found in the village of Zemlanyichne of the Biloghir district, 60 km from Simferopol. The man’s body bore numerous signs of torture, his head was bound with tape, his eyes were gouged out, and handcuffs were lying next to him. The cause of death was a stab wound to the eye.

zmina.ua/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/lost_people_eng_web_03.pdf

[john24smit]

How Disinformation Destroys the Lives of Millions

After watching the film "The IMPACT," it became clear to me: what's happening to ALLATRA volunteers and members of other organizations, like Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientologists, is a deliberate campaign of disinformation and violence. 

Anticultists create a false image of the "enemy," instilling fear and hatred in people. Those who try to speak the truth are persecuted. This is how the modern inquisition, called RACIRS, operates, functioning as a department within the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). 

How can we allow such things to happen in our time? If we don't stop the anti-cultists, what will happen next? Scientologists and Jehovah's Witnesses have already suffered, and if we don't take action, others will suffer too. Watch the film "The IMPACT" on actfiles.org to learn how to fight this global threat called global anticultism.

Persecution and harassment of peaceful citizens is happening everywhere in Russia, Ukraine, and even in Europe: the Czech Republic and Slovakia! 

Anticultists label people who defend democracy as "sectarians," creating an atmosphere of fear and hatred towards them. With disinformation, anti-cultists polarize people into "us and them." They stick Nazi-inspired dehumanizing labels like "sect" and "cult" on anyone they want to discredit in the eyes of society. They did the same thing to Jews in Nazi Germany. These identical methods, both then and now, demonstrate that today's anticultists are the followers of the anticultists who created Nazism.

After the release of the impactful videos featuring Egon Cholakian, "Crossroads," and the documentary film "The IMPACT," it became obvious that anti-cultists are the direct descendants of Nazis; they learn from the same manuals that Walter Künneth, who headed the Apologetic Center of the Protestant Church during the Third Reich and closely collaborated with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, developed in Nazi Germany. Walter Künneth's followers were Johannes Aagaard and Wilhelm Haack, who today are the founders of the Danish Dialogue Center and direct continuers of the Nazi efforts of the anti-cultist and anti-Semite. 

Why is the world silent? These actions are aimed at suppressing any freedom of thought and democracy. ALLATRA volunteers are subjected to violence for speaking the truth about the climate, while anticultists fuel hatred. Watch the film "The IMPACT" and draw your own conclusions.

#ALLATRA

#RUSSIANORTHODOXCHURCH

#propaganda

#Anticultism

#Ukraine

#Russia

#Slovakia

#Freedom of religion

#Humanrights

#Repression

[ext-raordinarymachine]

thinking of how next year or maybe even this one might be the last years of not heavily restricted internet access in my country 🥲

[shattered-pieces]

Freedom from "wokeness" offered by authoritarian regimes isn't worth the tradeoff of -- actual freedom.

Just because you aren't a target now doesn't mean you can't be. The same repressive laws that target minorities may someday turn on you.

A regime that represses opposition, has one party rule, lacks checks and balances, has only the trappings of democracy but none of the substance-- such as "87%" votes for the president--should never be trusted. No matter what they offer in exchange.

It's a price no one who actually loves freedom should be willing to pay.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Xi sold Putin complete nonsense! Russians are shocked by Chinese cars

EN - Chinese cars in the Russian Federation did not survive local frosts. Russians complain about pedals falling off, brakes failing and wiring catching fire. Hundreds of Chinese foreign cars are sent for repairs, but there is another problem - a shortage of spare parts. For details about new transport in the Russian Federation, see our story.

P.S. Chinese Communists and Business well know that the Russian imperialists have backed themselves into a corner and will buy any worthless piece of junk with wheels...In addition, the Russians have no rights and no one will take their complaints into account...! China will profit very well at the expense of the Russian fools who are building Putin's crippled Russian world...

[tomorrowusa]

Living in a police state means you're governed by criminals who ignore threats to public safety.

It turns out that the four terror suspects were from Tajikistan though living in Russia. This is essentially an internal matter. Putin's secret police were too busy murdering political opponents and harassing dissidents to be concerned about the threat of terrorism from within.

Moscow terror attack: Russian massacre suspects’ homeland Tajikistan is plagued by poverty and religious strife

Putin buddy Emomali Rahmon is Tajikistan's kleptocratic “Leader of the Nation” – essentially dictator for life. Like Russia, the country is undemocratic but holds sham elections for window dressing.

The pro-democracy organization Freedom House lists Tajikistan as a Consolidated Authoritarian Regime. It's a place only a dictator would love.

Tajikistan: Nations in Transit 2023 Country Report | Freedom House

[amerasdreams]

after 9/11, I remember some kids were terrified a plane would crash into their school. I understood that al Qaida had targeted symbols of American power and it wasn't likely they would attack a random school. However, the United States became united in the face of the attacks (at 1st anyway) and al Qaida failed to demoralize the US. I thought, the most effective terror strategy would be to attack random civilian targets. Terrorize the population.

This is what russia is doing now. Deliberately attacking civilians in order to demoralize the country. It is spreading terror in a true terrorist's strategy. We have to recognize this is what russia is doing. It may be a "good" strategy but it is a horrific thing to attack and kill civilians going about their day-- in their homes, train stations, stores, restaurants. Normal people around the world should be more outraged by this.

However, this strategy hasn't worked so far. Ukraine is united against the attacker. Because to give in would only spread more terror and untold horror in the country-- and russia would be emboldened to attack others.

Because Ukrainians

[freedom4russia]

For every 1 person who protests, there are many more who believe the same things but stay silent because they are afraid. Many are not just afraid of prison and torture for themselves, but because of their loved ones. They don't want to leave them, they don't want to give them the hardship that comes with being a relative of a prisoner, they don't want them to get in trouble too.

Also, although many who left the country to escape being forced to fight may still be pro-regime, there are many others who escaped because they do not want to kill Ukrianians (there are even people at the front line who refuse to fight and are either shot or put in prison, incl Wagner prison which tortures and kills them along with Ukrainians). They believe russia should not have invaded. They still may stay silent because russia has shown its ability to get to people even outside the country, and because if they can't be arrested, perhaps their families can be targeted.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

30 years since Bloody May in Moscow, May 1, 1993.

This is our true story of the struggle, the struggle of the Soviet people against the counter-revolution -- for their homeland, for Soviet power, for socialism.

The song "May 93" was written about those battles by Alexander Kharchikov. The first few verses of this song:

Once again the batons of OMON are above us

Crushing Russians on Russian soil,

And we welcome the first of May

Not in the colors, but in the blood on the forehead.

Red flags are our weapons,

Under which we went to battle.

And stood for the homeland in a friendly manner,

And in the hearts they carried with them!

The Soviet people did not surrender their country without a fight. It was Bloody May, it was Black October.

To remember those events, about the heroes of the battles in Moscow, means to continue the cause of the Revolution, means to carry the Red Flag high.

Via Nadezhda Sablina

[nando161mando]

70-year-old human rights activist Oleg Orlov being escorted out of court by masked cops today. He’s headed for 2.5 years in prison for writing in an op-ed that the Putin regime has adopted fascism. I wonder who in the crowd will be the next on trial.

[canadianabroadvery]

“ Russian activists have called for international days of protest on January 19 through 24, 2023 against Putin’s imperialist war in Ukraine and political repression in Russia. Thousands of Russian progressives, socialists, anarchists, and feminists have been arrested, hundreds jailed with long sentences, and untold numbers are under surveillance for their opposition to the regime. Tempest member Ashley Smith interviews Russian socialist Ivan Ovsyannikov about imperialist war, resistance to it, and political repression. “