Recently, several media outlets circulated the words of Vladimir Putin, who criticized the persecution of followers of the «Jehovah’s Witnesses» movement (banned in Russia), who are oppressed by the state as «extremists» under the leadership of Vladimir Putin himself. «Jehovah’s Witnesses are also Christians, and I don’t really understand why they are persecuted,» he said during a meeting of the Council for Human Rights under the President of Russia, which took place on November 28, 2018.
The news came as a sensation for many because Jehovah’s Witnesses were declared extremists by a decision of the Russian Supreme Court on April 20, 2017. And since no person with even the slightest intelligence can entertain the idea that in the current reality such decisions as that of the so-called «Supreme Court of Russia» could be made independently, many have concluded from these words of Putin that he has decided to turn his anger toward Jehovah’s Witnesses into mercy. Even active Muslims did not refrain from commenting on this news.
Among the more naive, hopes were raised that after the Jehovah’s Witnesses, their Muslim counterparts, religious communities such as «Nurdzhular» or «Jamaat Tabligh» (also banned in Russia) would be allowed. More sober commentators, of course, could not assume such a thing, and instead criticized the fact that, unlike the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have the «almighty» State Department behind them, no one stands up for Muslims, and therefore this liberalization will not extend to them.
However, we want to disappoint the first group and «comfort» the second — there will be no liberalization in Russia under Putin, which can be clearly deduced from the minutes of this meeting with the Kremlin’s licensed human rights defenders. Of course, if one reads it carefully and does not cherry-pick individual statements to draw cosmic conclusions…
But before discussing Jehovah’s Witnesses specifically, let’s comment on this meeting as a whole, since it has generated considerable interest in Russian society in this stagnant era. To put it politely, so as not to offend anyone, one must have a very specific mind to draw conclusions about Putin’s intentions or even his willingness to make partial liberalizations in the current repressive regime.
For our part, having taken the time to analyze the transcript of this three-hour meeting, we have come to directly opposite conclusions. In particular, if one leaves aside the protocol and diplomatic talk and analyzes the concrete proposals that the Kremlin human rights defenders made to their autocrat, it becomes clear that practically all of them were met with rejection, either directly or in the form of «we need to look into it», «we need to figure it out».
This applies, for example, to the following proposals that were expressed
- to restore the system of human rights commissions in the regions, which would make proposals to the corresponding commission in Moscow;
- to replace imprisonment for foreign citizens who commit petty and moderate crimes in Russia with deportation and a ban on re-entry;
- the release of Lev Ponomarev, an old (both in terms of professional experience and age) human rights defender who was sentenced to 30 days in prison for supporting an unauthorized rally;
- the creation of a department within the Investigative Committee of Russia to combat torture in law enforcement agencies and penal institutions;
- the abolition of the «Kremlin filter» in the election of regional leaders;
- to abolish the current procedure for the approval of rallies and to decriminalize the holding of unauthorized rallies;
- to limit the powers of the authorities in the «prevention of extremism» and to prohibit them from restricting the rights of persons included in the so-called «preventive lists», who, as a reminder, are not included in them by a court decision and not for the commission of proven crimes, but arbitrarily, and on this basis are significantly affected in their rights;
- to send prisoners serving their sentences closer to their place of residence;
- to announce an amnesty for certain groups of prisoners before the New Year.
All these proposals were rejected, as anyone who wants to study this conversation for himself can see. This was often done with classic bureaucratic excuses. For example, regarding the creation of an anti-torture unit: «Let’s say we increase the staff of the investigative committee. A delicate question. After all, we’re reducing everything, and now, as soon as I say, ‘We need to increase the staff of the Investigative Committee,’ Kolokoltsev will immediately come and say how many cases one investigator works on in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and how many in the system of the Investigative Committee: it’s many times, simply many times more!)». That is, Kolokoltsev will come and ask Putin about his decision, just like that…
In other cases, for example, regarding «prevention of extremism», it is simply said that there is no such problem: «…perhaps our law enforcement agencies, special services do not work as effectively as we would like, but nevertheless they are improving and working quite intensively. And what is happening in the fight against extremism, terrorism, and the analysis of this work shows that, on the whole, they are coping with the difficult tasks assigned to them)».
Or, as for serving sentences closer to home, it turns out that the budget can’t afford it, it will be expensive — of course, it’s much cheaper to send them all over the country in stages, for example, from the Caucasus to the Far North. It’s clear that this is much more economical for the budget…
Such blatantly cynical manipulations were evident throughout the meeting. For example, when they started to talk about the organization «Novoe Velichie» (New Greatness), which was created by provocateurs of the special services out of teenagers, who were then tortured during the investigation, Putin widened his eyes and said: «I’m hearing this for the first time.» Although after some time, when the topic of this organization resurfaced, he himself said: «…for the recruitment of its followers, this movement «New Greatness» planned to carry out recruitment work in the North Caucasus, in the Volga region and in the Crimea…». In other words, just by listening to Putin, one must constantly remember that he is the one who blatantly denied the presence of Russian troops in Crimea and Donbass, that the Skripal poisoners were «civilians» (whose affiliation with the GRU was later revealed down to the details of their biographies), and so on and so forth.
The same cynicism is evident in his comment on the torture of «Network» detainees in buses by FSB officers: «…but FSB officers do not work in these buses, do you understand? They are not physically there. Either the National Guard or the police work there. There are no FSB officers.» Although it is well known to everyone who has come in contact with them, especially to Putin himself, that FSB, FSK, KGB officers work absolutely wherever they deem necessary and in the manner they deem necessary.
In general, it is all lies, evasions, manipulations, or openly hostile reactions to the questions and suggestions of those who did not even ask about changing his political system, but only talked about humanizing it, stopping torture and mistreatment of people, total control and surveillance — it leaves an extremely heavy feeling after reading it.
To repeat, to draw conclusions about impending liberalization based on this, one must have a very peculiar way of thinking, probably just be afflicted with «Stockholm Syndrome», which is long overdue to be called «Russian».
Now, let’s turn to the question of «Jehovah’s Witnesses». The quote with which we began this article has been widely circulated in the media, but we would like to point out that when the question of persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses was first raised during this conversation, Putin’s response was quite different: «As for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Perhaps at some point we can and should be much more liberal toward representatives of various religious sects, but we must not forget that our society does not consist only of religious sects. About 90 percent of the citizens of the Russian Federation consider themselves Orthodox Christians. We also have three practically traditional religions, which are supported by the state. We must treat representatives of all religions equally — that is true, but we must also take into account the country and the society in which we live».
From this emphasis, it is quite obvious that Jehovah’s Witnesses and others who can be arbitrarily labeled as absolutely illegal «sects,» the so-called «traditionalists,» especially those who have been the religious departments themselves since Soviet times. Therefore, we dare to assume that the decision of the so-called Supreme Court of Russia to ban the Jehovah’s Witnesses will not be reversed.
And if Putin is asked again why he did not solve this problem, he will answer that the courts in Russia are independent and that as a true democrat and supporter of the rule of law he cannot influence their decisions. Well, or he will repeat what he already said at that meeting: «I don’t personally check every document against the data of law enforcement agencies, the FSB, I trust what is prepared by people, it is impossible to do otherwise. Just as with the appointment of judges, a pile of documents comes to me, should I meet with each of them personally? No. I simply trust the people who prepare these documents. In the photo, Putin presents the «Roditelskaya Slava» award to the Newikovs, a Jehovah’s Witness family… three months after the Supreme Court decision to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses, and simultaneously with the beginning of persecution against them by law enforcement agencies.»