Berichten vanuit strafkolonie nummer 7, Rusland

Ruslands beroemdste gevangene en de man die tot zijn schade (8 jaar strafkamp, veroordeeld in 2005) Poetin dwars zat, is Mikhail Khodorkovsky.  Ooit de rijkste man van Rusland, diegene die Yukos Oil groot maakte, die in Davos te gast was en in het Witte Huis.  De officiële reden van zijn veroordeling was fraude en belastingontwijking.  De officieuze reden : hij stond openlijk op tegen Vladimir Poetin en werd al te machtig en aldus een bedreiging.  Gaat het land onder de huidige president terug de weg op van de Goelags onder Stalin?

Over homo’s, activisten en zangeresjes

Khodorkovsky stond recent opnieuw voor de rechtbank voor nieuwe beschuldigingen.  In totaal zitten er wel twee dozijn eens machtige zakenmannen net als hij in de gevangenis – en een Russische strafkolonie is zeker geen lachertje, daar in het verre, vergeten Siberië.

Het Poetinisme zoals het al genoemd wordt veroordeelde dit jaar nog een Russische activist tot opsluiting in een krankzinnigengesticht.  Neen, tegenspreken wordt hier niet op prijs gesteld…  28 Mede-“daders” wachten nog op een beslissing over hun lot.  En dan was het weer homohaat, dan waren het weer de meisjes van de zanggroep Pussy Riot die achter de tralies vlogen…ja beslist goeie publiciteit voor een moderne natie….

Khodorkovsky schrijft de NY Times!

Deze prominente Amerikaanse krant publiceert een opiniestuk geschreven vanuit de Russische gevangenis; een belangwekkend, pakkend artikel ook dat u beslist helemaal zou moeten lezen hier.  We geven u alvast een extract uit “Ten years a prisoner” :

“But despite all the years that have passed, I have never become a part of this closed system, and I continue to live by the events taking place in Russia and the world. They reach me by way of newspapers and endless letters and the stories told by the people who are constantly coming in “from the outside.”

I have watched as my country has prospered from rising oil and gas prices. People’s incomes have increased significantly as well.

But the prices of goods and housing have also soared. Life in many Russian cities is now more expensive than in the United States or Europe.

The reasons are well known: state monopolism, corruption and inefficient administration, a consequence of the implacability of power and its excessive centralization in the hands of a single executive.

Many talented people are leaving the country; more than 2 million Russians have gone in just 10 years. The capital flight that started in 2008 stands at $350 billion and counting. Three million entrepreneurs have been subjected to criminal prosecution, and some of them, like Sergei L. Magnitsky and Vasily G. Aleksanyan, have died as a result of being in prison.

This is the reason why there is so little innovation in Russia, and why dependence on raw materials prices is rising while the overall growth rate is slowing. The quality of education is decreasing, while industry is falling technologically further behind the West, and now even China.

Russia’s place in the world has likewise changed. Our country, having become richer as a result of the raw materials boom, has begun playing a more active role in the global arena: recall its recent diplomatic successes in the Middle East and the multitude of recent and upcoming global political forums, economic meetings and sporting events held here.

Unfortunately, the prestige that comes with such success has been erased by events like the imprisonment of the women from the band Pussy Riot, the recent, inappropriate arrest of Greenpeace ecologists and the ban on adoptions by Americans.

The reason for each of these events is the same: An irremovable and out-of-control central power is losing the ability to adapt to an ever-more-changing world. It is incapable of offering an attractive vision for the future, a paradigm that might inspire people to follow it. This is why all the money, all the global-outreach efforts, all the technical achievements have no effect. A frozen and stiff society offers no hope for the young.

This is nothing new. Fearfully withdrawing into one’s shell is the usual reaction of people who lack sufficient ability to adapt (or who are afraid to display such ability). The interests, and even the fears, of such sufferers certainly have to be taken into account, but following them can only lead into the abyss.

Today the system for running the country is called “Vladimir V. Putin.” Can he change? I don’t want to give a categorical answer: A human being is too complicated a creature for that. But the chances are slim, as are the chances that Mr. Putin’s inner circle would allow him to cede his presidential powers, even temporarily, a second time. He will not control what follows him.

Inside the country, the number of supporters for a democratic transformation of power beyond the Putin regime is decreasing, while radical moods are slowly but surely increasing — something that will inevitably give rise to just as radical a leader in a crisis. Put differently, no matter what Mr. Putin does, Russia runs the risk of seeing another authoritarian regime follow his”.