Today, the Russian Duma passed in second and third reading the so-called “Yarovaya-Ozerov Law on Terrorism,” a draconian measure that means not only that Vladimir Putin’s recent call for improved relations with the West was nothing more than “a special operation” but also–and more seriously–that he is preparing for war at home and abroad.
That is the judgment of Lev Ponomarev, a longtime human rights activist, who says that, in one sense, those pushing this legislation law are correct if Russia has indeed entered “a military period,” one when “it is possible to spit on the Constitution” in order to “oppose enemies.”
Polls show, he continues, that “about 50 percent of Russians are ready for war and ready to send their sons off to fight.” That of course means that bodies will be returning in large numbers just as they did during the fighting in Ukraine and in lesser numbers in Moscow’s Syrian campaign.
Thus, “the country is prepared for war and it is necessary to deal with ‘the fifth column’” at home.
What is striking, however, is that the Duma’s action comes on the heels of Putin’s declaration only last week that he wants to be friends and to have foreigners invest in Russia. If he signs this measure, Ponomarev says, “it will become clear that Putin in St. Petersburg only carried out a cover operation” and that no one should take his words there seriously.
Instead, the activist says, they should take seriously the fact that “mass purges of ‘the fifth column’ are beginning” and that more Russian aggression abroad can be expected in the coming weeks and months.
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![Vladimir Putin's wrestling coach, the person who reportedly helped him get admitted to the Leningrad State University using his connections, was one of the city's top criminals, had served 20 years in prison, and died in a gang battle at 57. Putin admiringly wrote about him in his memoirs called "From the First Person" without using the coach's surname or mentioning his criminal links (for obvious reasons). As the engraving on his grave stone states, the coach Leonid Ionovich Usvyatsov composed the epitaphs himself. [Translator: Please note that in the original Russian the epitaphs crudely rhyme, but the translation did not attempt to reproduce rhyming prioritizing accuracy instead.] The epitaph on the front panel says: "A grave and on the grave there is an epitaph: 'I am dead, but mafia is immortal.'" The back panel is engraved with the following epitaphs: "Hooray! I finally died!!! All of my life I worked for broads like a slave. Now I won't spend a kopeck on this liver sausage anymore." "I gave her my two final bangs and then was carried away on a hearse." "Let's drink to us all, because the curtain will soon fall." (Image: openrussia.org)](https://euromaidanpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/4bbcb9a683811.gif)
