Four years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia faces a wellspring of discontent.
Rolling digital blackouts in Russian cities have unnerved the general public and sparked a public backlash against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia has weathered wartime economic pain while security services have suppressed protests. And the Middle East conflict has given Russia’s war effort an unexpected boost through soaring oil prices.
Nevertheless, Russia’s repressive state apparatus now appears to be kicking into high gear. In recent weeks, law enforcement officials have launched a new round of high-profile political arrests and raids. And in parallel, the Russian government is reviving the ghosts of the Soviet Union’s past.
The latest example: On Tuesday, officials from Russia’s Investigative Committee raided the offices of Russia’s largest publishing house and detained staff, following a year-long criminal investigation in what authorities say is an “LGBTQ propaganda” case.
Publisher Eksmo owns a publishing company called Popcorn Books that publishes young adult novels.
One title in particular seems to be attracting a lot of attention. “Summer in Pioneer Thailand” is a 2021 bestseller featuring the story of a strange romance between two young people at a summer camp in the Soviet Union.
Last year, authorities detained several people associated with the publishing company. The Popcorn Books imprint closed in January.
President Vladimir Putin’s Russia has long been hostile to what it sees as dangerous Western ideas, and Kremlin leaders have positioned themselves as defenders of traditional values.
In 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court recognized what Russian authorities call the “International LGBTQ Movement” as an extremist organization and declared that it could impose serious criminal penalties for LGBTQ activities, or, in the case of Eksmo, for publication.
Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported that Exmo executives were released on bail after being interrogated. But it’s not just the publishing industry where space for free expression is shrinking in Russia.
Earlier this month, police raided the offices of independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose co-founder won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti cited the Interior Ministry as saying that journalist Oleg Roldugin had been detained for questioning in connection with a criminal case over allegations of illegal handling of personal information, but Roldugin denied the charges ahead of the hearing.
The cooling effect of this case is obvious.
Novaya Gazeta was forced to close its print edition after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but continues to publish online. The attack pushed the remnants of Russia’s press freedom further into the margins.
Sharing independent news in Russia is already difficult. The government is pushing to ban popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and impose a state-controlled messaging app called MAX as the people’s default digital services portal. And the raid on Novaya Gazeta took place on the same day that Russia’s Supreme Court designated the renowned human rights organization Memorial as “extremist.”
The designation “effectively criminalizes important human rights work” in Russia, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement.
While attacks on the press continue, authorities are also reviving old symbols of political repression. A few days ago, Russia’s FSB academy, where Putin trained to become a KGB agent, was renamed in honor of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the feared founder of the Soviet secret police.
The toppling of the Dzerzhinsky statue outside KGB headquarters in 1991 became one of the symbolic acts that signaled the end of the Soviet Union. But Russian authorities appear intent on coming to terms with the country’s dark totalitarian past.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that the embassies of Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia lodged a protest with the Russian Foreign Ministry after a memorial to the victims of the Soviet secret police in the Siberian city of Tomsk was demolished. And earlier this month, Russia sparked outrage by installing an exhibit that some critics said desecrated the Katyn monument, site of the mass execution of Polish prisoners by the Soviet Union in 1940.
But if the Russian government is reviving the ghosts of the Soviet past and making life even more inconvenient for ordinary Russians, then Putin himself is demonstrating public indifference.
On Thursday, President Putin broke his silence on the rolling digital blackout that hit the capital in early March.
“I can’t help but point out that people are encountering it even in big cities. It’s rare, but unfortunately it does happen,” he says. “I’m talking about specific internet issues and failures in metropolitan areas.”
Putin said the unpopular internet outage that hit e-commerce and left many apps and electronic services inaccessible was “related to operations to prevent terrorist attacks.” But he also seemed to suggest that the public’s need to know was limited.
“The release of extensive information in advance can have a negative impact on the development of operations, after all, criminals can hear and see everything. And of course, once the information reaches them, they will adjust their criminal actions and plans,” he said.
In other words, life during wartime meant putting up with some inconvenience. And Russia’s security services’ widening and deepening crackdown on civilian life shows little sign of abating.
