The political editor of Russian newspaper Novaya gazeta says that young Russians have now been confronted with a brutal choice: they can either conform as the regime wants or they can choose to emigrate. The third option is to act and be punished. Only a few of them will do that.
The Russian intelligentsia has been frightened into self-censorship, and the state’s propaganda machine, generously funded by the Kremlin, is using its monopoly position to dominate the thinking of the population, Martynov continues. “It might seem that in this situation the time had come for a long-awaited appeasement.”
“The Kremlin has exited from the crisis connected with the return of [Alexei] Navalny to Russia, and the goals of terror have been achieved in that all who could be frightened have been,” the editor says. “However, persecution of ‘new dissidents’ continue even though there is no practical sense in this.”
In short, Martynov says, while the powers have won “a crushing victory over society, the repressions are continuing – simply because they can.” They don’t serve any broader purpose than the acting out of the grudges some people hold about others. In the past, such people had to restrain themselves unless give the order. Now, their hands have been untied and they can act.
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