Interesting article on how the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk 20+ years ago represented a turning point in Russia's fledgling democracy, as Putin began his clamp down on independent journalism in the country. He was none too happy for the blame he was taking over the incident. Rather than answer questions he decided it was better to end any discussion whatsoever, at least on terms other than his own. One by one, the independent news channels, newspapers and journals were shuttered, citing tax evasion in most cases, and then reformed as an organ of the Kremlin. There was a lot of protest at the time, but it mostly went ignored, even when leading journalists like Ana Politkovskaja turned up dead. It was widely believed that Putin sicked his Chechen "dragons" on her.
This pressure on journalists and indeed anyone that questioned the Kremlin narrative literally became a target on your back. In 2015, the same "dragons" offed Boris Nemsov in broad daylight. The Moscow police rounded up some questionable suspects, a trial was held, but everybody knew this was just a way to appease the international community after so many unusual deaths were not prosecuted. Russia has long been ranked at the bottom for journalistic safety, and still finds itself in the Bottom Ten of the CPJ Global Impunity Index with good company like Somalia, Afghanistan, South Sudan and the Philippines.
It simply isn't safe to be an investigative reporter in Russia. If not killed outright, you find yourself locked in jail on dubious charges, as is the case with Alexei Navalny, who exposed Putin's massive wealth. Ironically, Navalny was indicted on fraud charges, not for his daring expose, but for taking money from his own political organizations, which spokesmen for these organizations vehemently denied. No matter, Navalny will spend the next 9 years in a maximum security prison after having survived a poison attack at a Russian airport that literally left him blue in the face.
There is no safe haven either. Attacks are carried out around the globe, just as they were in Stalin's time. Fortunately, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia survived the infamous Salisbury poisoning in 2018. Former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko was not so lucky.
Of course, Putin denies any involvement in these violent acts, Yet, virtually all of them stem from reporting on his power and corruption. Pretty amazing coincidence!
Surprisingly, there are those who still believe Putin can be reasoned with, despite the incredible web of lies he has spun to defend his response to the hostage crises at the Moscow theater and Beslan, and his repeated incursions into Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine. Oh, and the Malaysia Airlines flight that was shot down over Ukraine by Russian Buk missiles, which the Russian-backed separatists in Donbas were using in their battle against Ukraine.
Even with the Kursk, old lies get spun anew, like the one where a NATO submarine sunk the ill-fated nuclear submarine. There simply is no accounting in Moscow. Everything is someone else's fault. It took days to even respond to reports the Kursk had sunk, and by the time Moscow did it was too late. All 118 naval personnel aboard the ship died for no other reason than a faulty torpedo launcher, but Putin didn't want Russia's vaunted military image to be tarnished.
Or course, people will believe what they want to believe and there are plenty of Putin apologists out there willing to defend his actions, especially in relation to what they perceive to be a far greater evil in the United States. Russia is a necessary counterweight, they say, otherwise the US and NATO would run roughshod on the world. We can certainly find plenty of fault in US and NATO-backed incursions in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, but this "whataboutism" leads no where. Or, as my mother used to say, two wrongs don't make a right.
The problem that stares us right in the face is Russia. More directly, Putin! This is a man who doesn't have the slightest qualm laying entire cities (Grozny, Aleppo, Mariupol) to waste to achieve his military goals. The worst part about it is that he tries to tell us he is not responsible for it, as if these cities mysteriously blew up themselves. He blames the massive destruction we see in Mariupol on the relative handful of Ukrainians insurgents holding out in the Azovstal steelworks. His forces are liberators.
It doesn't matter that we can see the destruction and deaths taking place in real time, thanks to Skype, drones and satellite imagery. New information technology hasn't put a dent in the narrative the Kremlin tries to build on the Ukraine War, or rather special military operation. When one of his oil depots mysteriously blows up, or one of his warships sinks, Putin calls them sabotage and accidents, as he still can't bring himself to call this a war, despite thousands of Russian soldiers coming home in body bags.
Russia similarly had a huge death toll in Chechnya, which Ana Politkovskaja and others reported on. Alexander Sokurov made a gut-wrenching film about a mother, Alexandra, going to Chechnya in search of her son, which she hadn't heard from in months. He received numerous death threats, but in this rare case Putin protected him. I suppose this is why Sokurov still believes Putin has a soul, dark as it may be. This lengthy interview with the great Russian director on the current situation in Ukraine is well worth watching. You can hit the closed caption button for English subtitles.
Ukraine is using facial recognition to identify the many dead Russian soldiers and making information available for families back in Russia, as it seems the Z-forces didn't think it was worth retrieving the bodies.
There reaches a point where you become so thoroughly trapped in your own lies that there is no escape short of self-destruction. We seem to be moving in that direction, as Russia has failed to make any significant gains in its second surge, and is now hoping to starve the Ukrainian insurgents out of Azovstal so that it can at least claim Mariupol as a prize on Victory Day. Putin fears losing any more soldiers in trying to physically take the steelworks.
In a last ditch appeal, UN General Secretary Guterres flew to Moscow and sat at the opposite end of the infamous long table hoping to convince Putin to open humanitarian corridors out of the besieged city for the approximately 100,000 residents still trapped there. It is doubtful anymore will come of this meeting than have previous attempts to rescue the trapped residents. We know from Putin's past actions that he places very little value on human life.
One hopes that if anything comes out of this war it is that Vladimir Putin can no longer be trusted.
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