Barely freed from the miseries and fears caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we find ourselves grappling with a new scourge: Vladimir Putin.
We woke up on February 24 with a new paradigm, a warrior logic provoked by the imperialist delirium of a man, who will one day have to pay for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that are currently taking place on Ukrainian territory.
Since taking control of the Kremlin in 2000, Putin has carefully cultivated an image of a powerful leader on the international scene, hiding the breadth and depth of the corruption that plagues the country and prevents any possibility of Russia’s transition. towards prosperity and democracy. Manipulating images and messages through Russian state television, which is the only source of information for a large part of the Russian population, he has systematically used the term “fascist” for everything concerning Ukraine, from the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Donbass in 2014. I saw this attempt at brainwashing during my stays in Russia following these events. The hate speech of the Kremlin and its information tools is not without consequences, as we see today with the war unfolding before our eyes.
The human rights organization that I lead and which supports NGOs in post-USSR countries was declared “undesirable” in August 2021 by the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. Since then, anyone collaborating with us in Russia is liable to six years in prison, which further reinforces the stigmatization and isolation of Russian human rights organizations having to declare themselves “foreign agents” under a law decried but then copied by other authoritarian regimes in the region.
The prestigious organization Memorial, which preserves the memory of Stalinist crimes, and its center for human rights have borne the brunt of this draconian legislation. A few days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Memorial International was “liquidated” by decision of the Supreme Court. Since then, raids have been carried out on the offices of its center for human rights and the protection of migrants, and there is great concern for the safety of the members of all the Russian NGOs who have denounced, since years, the excesses of their government and have not been heard in time.
Difficult and dangerous work
We hoped that the Russian people would rise up against this war. The latest liberticidal laws punishing any “false” information about the Russian armed forces with extreme prison sentences, and thereby cutting off the population from any independent information, will make this work difficult and dangerous. Yet brave citizens continue to take to the streets and face harsh arrests. Trials of protest organizers are taking place right now. Some give rise to formidable platforms demanding an end to the aggression of Ukraine by Russia, whose police authorities shamelessly mistreat and detain the elderly and children with flowers, icons or peace drawings. New purges, worthy of the Stalin era, cannot be ruled out.
Prior to Putin’s huge slap in the face against democracy and its neighbour, our governments treated Putin as a legitimate leader who needed to be contained through open dialogue to prevent “cutting ties” with the Kremlin. This approach, based on economic interests such as Europe’s extreme dependence on Russian gas, has developed at the expense of democracy and human rights issues repeatedly raised by Russian, Ukrainian and international NGOs, perceived as allegedly “naive”. The desire to keep the dialogue with Putin open has led to a double-talk within international organizations and an unprecedented capacity for harm by the authoritarian regime in the Kremlin, leaving the door wide open for further repression in Russia and beyond. of its borders, as we see tragically in Ukraine today. The so-called naivety is not where it was supposed to be.
The tragedy of the aggression against Ukraine constitutes for Western leaders the perfect opportunity to finally take up the challenge of responding to Putin’s cynicism in a firm and united manner, by matching words and deeds. That’s what we’re seeing right now. Coordinated sanctions, financial aid: this is reassuring, but will it be enough to stifle the regime, its war machine and those who finance it? Because during this time, Europe continues to consume Russian gas, which finances the war…
If we do not succeed in containing this deadly drift, what is happening before our eyes, a mixture of suffering and courage of Ukrainians in the face of the Russian giant, makes people fear the worst in neighboring countries, where Russian speakers live, that the Kremlin could also instrumentalize to achieve its imperialist aims. Putin frightens, he sows terror, and that is his goal. Today, it is high time to put an end to the crimes of this man and his accomplices. The work of Ukrainian and international NGOs which continue their mission of collecting acts constituting war crimes, for the purposes of submission to the International Criminal Court, is essential. All countries must support these efforts, politically and financially. […]
The world already had the challenges of climate change on its hands, as the latest report, more alarming than ever from the IPCC, reminds us. Here we are mired in a conflict created from scratch by a power-hungry mind that distracts us from the existential challenges of humanity on our planet, which we continue to destroy.