Vladimir Putin has committed many crimes, but his political tactics at least from his own point of view have been brilliant, keeping his opponents off balance and ensuring that he will retain the support of the Russian population. But now he has made what can only be described as an unforced error, one that is likely to come back to haunt him.
Yesterday, the Kremlin leader announced that he was taking personal control of Russia’s Federal Archives Agency (RosArkhiv), declaring that he is doing so because of the “special value” of documents contained there.
The fact that Soviet and Russian politics has often been about controlling the past in the name of controlling the future is no news, and it is certainly the case that the chief current defender of that country’s security services and their dark history should want to ensure that he has absolute control over documents that might be embarrassing or worse.
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- “Drowning frozen corpses of GULAG prisoners in a frozen Siberian river” by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard
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- A false confession under torture: “I’m… an English, French, American, Japanese, Italian, German and maybe some other spy as well…” (“Drawings from the GULAG” by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard)
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- ‘Third degree interrogation’ from “Drawings from the GULAG” by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard
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- The Polar Styx. Author: Eugene Ivanov
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- Magadan Hills, a painting by Mykola Hetman, a former GULAG prisoner, born December 23, 1917 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Background of the picture: In 1932, members of a Soviet geological expedition discovered gold at the mouth of the Utinny River in Siberia. A GULAG settlement was built between the villages of Balaganny and Ola, the hills there destroyed, piers built, and the settlement named Magadan after a nearby stream. Forced laborers were brought in to build roads from Magadan to the gold. Building the roads was incredibly harsh labor in the permafrost. The prisoners were poorly fed and worked for long hours under fierce conditions with rudimentary tools. The sentiment expressed here is that the roads were built on human bones—that every hill, every gully, and every path in Magadan represents human lives and could be the site of a human grave. The sun is eclipsed to symbolize the darkness and evil that cast its shadow over the people of the Soviet Union. The cross represents the enormous burdens the prisoners had to bear. It also symbolizes Christ’s trek up the hill of Golgotha, which the artist likens to the prisoners’ journey. (Source: thegulag.org)
But that was true of his predecessors as well, and none of them chose to take direct control of the archives, not only because they viewed this as a technical issue but also because they were confident that they had subordinates who would do their bidding in that regard. By taking direct personal control, Putin has raised two serious questions:
- On the one hand and most immediately, are there things in the archives that are so threatening to him and his regime that he cannot risk having anyone else be in charge?
- And on the other and more ominously, is the circle of people on whom he can totally rely now narrowing to the point that he has no choice but to assume personal control?
That such questions will now be asked is beyond question, and the answers, even if they are speculative or uninformed, will harm Putin.
Consequently, the Kremlin leader, in this regard, has done something even worse than a crime: he has committed a serious political mistake – and it is certain to haunt him in the future.
Related:
- Putin’s Russia well on its way to ‘criminal neo-totalitarianism’ with a ‘neo-terror’ and a ‘neo-GULAG,’ Pastukhov says
- ‘Putin – just a link of a single KGB chain’ ruling Russia
- Expert: Putin’s Russia now ‘one large KGB special op’
- Russia’s criminalization of protest: Ildar Dadin’s appeal and Article 212.1
- Russian Stalinists recognize Putin as one of their own
- Kadyrov, Putin and the desensitization of Russia
Tags: criminalization of Russian state, FSB (Russia's Federal Security Service), History, International, KGB, Putin, Russia, Russian history, Russian state archives, Soviet history, SVR (Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service)
