On Tuesday, July 25, Boris Kagarlitsky, a well-known left-wing university teacher in Moscow, was arrested. It appears as if a political purge is going on in the country.
This arrest came only a few days after that of Igor Girkin (‘Strelkov’), a prominent representative of the national patriots and a former Minister of Defence of the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’. Then the machine of repression swung towards the left flank of the Russian political spectrum. Boris Kagarlitsky is a sociologist and professor at Moscow State University and quite well known within those circles. A court in Komi has detained him for two months on charges of condoning terrorism, related to the explosion on the Crimea Bridge in October last year.
The chief editor of the internet magazine, “Rabkor”, has also been arrested and is being prosecuted for the publication of posts and videos about the bridge explosion. The left-wing sociologist denies any involvement in the case.
On October 8, 2022, a truck exploded on the road part of the Crimea Bridge and then seven fuel tanks of a railway train caught fire. Two spans of the road collapsed and four people were killed. A special criminal case under the category of “Terrorism” was opened with regard to what occurred.
Incitement
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in the Komi Republic charged Kagarlitsky under part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – “Public incitement to terrorism, justification of terrorism and the promotion of terrorism with the use of the Internet”. The maximum penalty under this article is seven years’ imprisonment. The criminal case was opened the same day. Yulia Kuznetsova is a lawyer and is acting on behalf of psychologist Alexander Archagov, who was searched on July 25 as part of the case against Kagarlitsky and taken away for questioning.
The investigation maintains that the editor-in-chief of the internet publication, Rabkor, and the author of the YouTube channel of the same name, published a video that “is aimed at the public justification of terrorism”. The court did not specify what kind of video they are talking about and what it depicts.
As pointed out by lawyer, Vladislav Kosnyrev, the 64-year-old political scientist is accused of publishing a video that covered the explosion on the Crimea Bridge in October 2022. According to Kagarlitsky’s own lawyer, Sergei Erokhov, the case also involves the sociologist’s post in a Telegram channel about the explosion on the Crimea Bridge, which he posted at the same time. The defence lawyer stressed that Kagarlitsky does not acknowledge any guilt. “In his activities, Professor B. Y. Kagarlitsky has never supported or justified terrorism. The purpose of all his speeches is an endeavour to show the real problems facing the Russian state”.
In court, the accused himself called his case “political” but in no way related to Syktyvkar in Komi. Kagarlitsky, who lives in Moscow, said he was not aware of the reasons for his transfer to Komi as part of the investigation. The sociologist was being detained in a detention centre in the Nizhny Chov micro-district.
A day earlier, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in the Komi Republic had charged Kagarlitsky under part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Public incitement to terrorism, justification of terrorism and the promotion of terrorism with the use of the Internet). The maximum penalty under this article is seven years’ imprisonment.
The investigation maintains that the editor-in-chief of the internet publication, Rabkor, and the author of the YouTube channel of the same name, published a video that “is aimed at the public justification of terrorism.” The court did not specify what kind of video we are talking about and what it depicts.
As pointed out by lawyer Vladislav Kosnyrev, the 64-year-old political scientist is accused of publishing a video that referred to the explosion on the Crimea Bridge in October 2022. According to Kagarlitsky’s lawyer, Sergei Erokhov, the case also involves the sociologist’s post in a Telegram channel about the explosion on the Crimea Bridge, which he posted at the same time.
“In his activities, Professor B. Y. Kagarlitsky has never supported or justified terrorism. The purpose of all his speeches is an endeavour to show the real problems facing the Russian state,” the defence lawyer said, stressing that Kagarlitsky does not accept any guilt.
Kagarlitsky
Boris Kagarlitsky was born in 1958 in Moscow. In 1988, his book, “Thinking Reed”, won him the British Deutscher Memorial Prize. From 1990 to 1993, he was a deputy on the Moscow City Council. From 1994 to 2002, he worked as a senior researcher at the Institute of Comparative Political Science and Problems of the Labour Movement at the Russian Academy of Sciences. He now teaches at the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (Shaninka). The School’s website relates that between 1982 and 1983, Kagarlitsky was a “political prisoner”, accused of anti-Soviet propaganda. He is a candidate of political science, yet a write-up about him is currently missing from the university’s website!
In 2012, Kagarlitsky was investigated in relation to the “Bolotnaya” disorders. In 2021, he was arrested for 10 days for holding an unauthorised public event and, in May 2022, the Russian Justice Ministry included the sociologist in the register of “Foreign agents”. It is known that the psychologist, Alexander Archagov, was broadcasting on Rabkor’s YouTube channel. However, his lawyer has not reported where he is at the moment. In what capacity he is involved in the Kagarlitsky case is also unknown.
What is happening in Russia?
In general, the situation in Russia remains extremely difficult. Any protest events are banned, trade unions are constrained and do not conduct any real work. The opposition is virtually destroyed. There are a few large trade unions in Russia, but they are under state control, their activists have been harassed and many have been prosecuted. Recently, there has been a tendency to pressure workers at state-owned enterprises to join government-controlled trade unions. This seems to be done in order to create the appearance of mass participation in these organisations and to distract people from independent trade unions, which are very scarce and weak due to the constant repressive actions of the authorities against them.
In the Russian parliament there is only a decorative opposition, the deputies are divorced from the people. Unfortunately, many Russian citizens do support Putin and his policies, but this is the result of years of propaganda and the elimination of anyone who has a different opinion, just expressing it in public.
It is not unusual at public protest events to see police arresting people just holding the Russian flag. It is absurd, but it has happened. There are also quite a few people who understand the disastrous nature of Putin’s regime and at the same time the danger of western collaboration, but these are mostly people of a socialist outlook, young people.
We are sure that justice will prevail and the global criminal capitalist system will be defeated. All these bourgeois political regimes fighting each other will answer to the people who are oppressed by them! Long live the coming socialist world!
