On June 25, the Council of Europe restored Russia’s voting rights,
which had been suspended after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in
2014 and subsequent invasion of Eastern Ukraine. You were a proponent of
the move, an important endorsement considering Germany’s outsized
influence in Europe. After the decision was announced, you said, “This
is also good news for Russian civil society. Russians must continue to
have the opportunity to seek justice at the European Court of Justice.”
I was shocked, and unable to withhold a profane response to you on
Twitter, speaking for the many exiled members of Russian civil society,
forced to leave Russia under threat of prosecution and violence, as so
many of my colleagues and countrymen have suffered.
While I ask
for your understanding for my harsh language, I neither regret nor
retract it. After twenty years of Vladimir Putin’s increasingly brutal
rule, Russian civil society barely exists. Using them as a pretext for
appeasing Putin is revolting.
On July 27, one month after your
remarks, peaceful Russian protests against the removal of opposition
candidates from upcoming election rolls led to the largest mass arrests
and police violence since the fall of the Soviet Union. Many dozens were
beaten by riot police for simply trying to march. Over a thousand
people have been arrested, and statements by Putin’s political and law
enforcement leadership have made it clear that they don’t consider it an
overreaction. Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin praised the police—whose
violence was captured on video. Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika exhorted
his district attorneys to do whatever must be done to “uphold public
order.” Attorney General Investigative Committee chief Alexander
Bastrykin announced opening a case for criminal prosecution of “mass
disorder”, with penalties up to 15 years in prison. It is apparent that
the harshest measures will be used to prevent even the hint of free and
fair elections in Russia.
What changes prompted the Council’s
move to welcome Putin’s regime back? Has Russia ceased its aggression in
Ukraine? Returned Crimea as demanded by the international community?
Released the 24 Ukrainian sailors kidnapped in international waters? Has
Putin’s regime liberalized internally to meet the Council’s
requirements for human rights and democratic standards?
No, no,
no, and no. So the Council’s real motivations remain a dark mystery. The
ability of a few Russians to pursue “justice” in Europe’s court is a
cruel hoax. What about justice for tens of millions of Russians? They
will have no hope as long as Putin is in charge, and the Council’s
actions—and statements like yours—entrench Putin even further. Worse,
they give him a green light for further abuses in Russia because he
knows he has collaborators like you who will do his bidding regardless.
Putin wants to participate because it’s worth the occasional payment
from a lost case in order to destroy the credibility of Europe’s
institutions. Russia’s presence makes a mockery of the Council’s
standards of human rights, just as Putin intends. It exposes Europe as
hypocrites who only talk about justice and democracy until a new gas
pipeline comes along.
Putin has to buy loyalty and he’s found
willing partners like you in Germany and in the rest of Europe. He’s
using both political capital in institutions like PACE and real capital
with projects like the Nordstream 2 pipeline with Germany. Your money is
directly funding Putin’s police state as well as his propaganda and war
machine. The political and economic engagement you use as an excuse to
make profitable deals with Russia doesn’t modernize or liberalize
Russia; the flow goes the other way. Russia’s biggest export isn’t gas
or oil, it’s corruption.
The only real pressure on Putin comes
from threatening his grip in Russia. The only true reform will be
Putin’s departure. On June 25, I spoke to you representing Russian civil
society in exile. Now Russian civil society inside Russia speaks to you
as well—from a thousand jail cells built with your assistance.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in one of them, suffering at this
moment from a sudden “allergy” that afflicted him behind prison walls.
I saw the Council’s meek statement on the protests and arrests, more
words in the wind now that they gave Putin what he wanted. Your June 25
statement continued, “It is now important that we develop a mechanism
that enables us to sanction countries in line with the Statute if they
are in breach of duty.”
Putin has called your bluff, as he always does. Putin heard your good news. Now I would now like to hear from you.
Garry Kasparov is the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation
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