Russia is facing a spring of discontent – and Putin is responding the only way he knows how

Maxim Shipenkov/Pool/Reuters

Four years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia is facing a spring of discontent.

Rolling digital blackouts in Russian cities have touched a nerve with ordinary citizens and public pushback against Russian President Vladimir Putin is emerging.

Russia has weathered wartime economic pain while its security services keep protests in check. And the conflict in the Middle East has given Russia’s war effort an unexpected boost through higher oil prices.

Nonetheless, Russia’s repressive apparatus of state now appears to be shifting into high gear. In recent weeks, law-enforcement authorities have launched a new round of high-profile political arrests and raids. And in parallel, the Russian government has been resurrecting the ghosts of the Soviet past.

The most recent example: On Tuesday, officials from Russia’s Investigative Committee raided the offices of one of Russia’s largest publishers and detained staff members, following a year-old criminal investigation into what authorities allege is a case of “LGBTQ propaganda.”

The publisher, Eksmo, is the owner of an imprint called Popcorn Books that published young-adult fiction.

Igor Ivanko/AFP/Getty Images

One of its titles appears to have drawn particular scrutiny: “Summer in a Pioneer Tie,” a 2021 bestseller featuring the story of a queer romance between two young men at a Soviet summer camp.

Authorities detained several individuals connected to the publishing house last year; the Popcorn Books imprint was shut down in January.

Putin’s Russia has long been hostile to what it deems to be dangerous Western ideas, with the Kremlin leader positioning himself as a defender of traditional values.

In 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court declared what Russian authorities call the “international LGBTQ movement” an extremist organization, imposing potentially serious criminal penalties for LGBTQ activism – or apparently, in the case of Eksmo, the act of publishing.

Russian state news agency TASS said top Eksmo managers were released on bail after questioning. But the publishing industry is not the only place where space for free expression is dwindling in Russia.

Earlier this month, police raided the offices of Novaya Gazeta, the independent newspaper whose co-founder won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.

Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti, citing the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said journalist Oleg Roldugin was detained for questioning in connection with a criminal case over the alleged illegal mishandling of personal data Roldugin denied guilt ahead of a hearing.

The chilling effect of the case is clear.

Novaya Gazeta was forced to shut down its print edition after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine but continues to publish online; the raid pushes the remnants of Russia’s free press further to the margins.

Sharing independent news in Russia is already tough. The government bans popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and is pushing to impose a state-controlled messaging app called MAX as the population’s default portal for digital services. And the Novaya Gazeta raid came on the same day as Russia’s Supreme Court designated Memorial, the storied human-rights organization, as “extremist.”

In a statement, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said the designation was “effectively criminalizing critical human rights work” in Russia.

While the attack on the press is underway, the authorities are also reviving old symbols of political repression. A few days ago Russia’s FSB Academy, where Putin trained to be a KGB agent, was renamed in honor of Feliks Dzherzinsky, the dreaded founder of the Soviet secret police.

The toppling of Dzherzinsky’s statue outside KGB headquarters in 1991 was one of the symbolic acts that marked the end of the Soviet Union. But authorities in Russia appear intent on embracing the country’s dark, totalitarian past.

The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images

On Thursday, Reuters reported, the embassies of Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia issued a protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry, after a memorial complex in the Siberian city of Tomsk dedicated to the victims of the Soviet secret police was dismantled. And earlier this month, Russia prompted outrage by installing an exhibit that some commentators said defiled the Katyn Memorial, the site of the mass execution of Polish POWs by the Soviets in 1940.

But if the Russian government is resurrecting the ghosts of the Soviet past – and making life for ordinary Russians a whole lot more inconvenient – Putin himself is showing public indifference.

On Thursday, Putin broke his silence on the rolling digital blackouts, which hit the country’s capital in early March.

“I can’t help but point out what people are also encountering in large cities — it’s rare, but unfortunately, it does happen,” he said. “I’m referring to certain internet problems and outages in major metropolitan areas.”

Ramil Sitdikov/Reuters

Putin said the unpopular internet disruptions – which have hit e-commerce and made many apps and electronic services inaccessible – were “related to operational work to prevent terrorist attacks.” But he also appeared to suggest that the public’s need to know was limited.

“Widespread public information in advance can be detrimental to operational development, because the criminals, after all, hear and see everything,” he said “And, of course, if information reaches them, they will adjust their criminal behavior and their criminal plans.”

In other words, life during wartime means putting up with some inconvenience. And Russia’s security services broadening and deepening a crackdown on civic life shows little sign of abating.

Maxim Shipenkov/Pool/路透社

全面入侵乌克兰四年后，俄罗斯正面临着一波不满浪潮。

俄罗斯城市轮流实施的网络封锁触动了普通民众的敏感神经，公众对俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京的抵制情绪正在抬头。

俄罗斯在承受战争带来的经济痛苦的同时，其安全部门也有效地控制了抗议活动。此外，中东冲突还通过推高油价，意外地为俄罗斯的战争行动提供了助力。

然而，俄罗斯的国家镇压机器似乎正在加速运转。近几周来，执法部门发起了新一轮备受瞩目的政治逮捕和突袭行动。与此同时，俄罗斯政府似乎正在重拾苏联时代的幽灵。

最近的一个例子是：周二，俄罗斯调查委员会的官员突袭了俄罗斯最大的出版商之一的办公室，并拘留了工作人员。此前，当局已就一起所谓的“LGBTQ宣传”案件展开了长达一年的刑事调查。

出版商 E​​ksmo 旗下拥有一个名为 Popcorn Books 的出版品牌，专门出版青少年小说。

伊戈尔·伊万科/法新社/盖蒂图片社

其中一本似乎引起了特别的关注：《先锋领带中的夏天》，这是 2021 年的畅销书，讲述了两个年轻男子在苏联夏令营中的同性恋情故事。

去年，当局拘留了与该出版社有关的几名人员；爆米花图书品牌于今年1月关闭。

普京领导下的俄罗斯长期以来对它认为危险的西方思想抱有敌意，这位克里姆林宫领导人将自己定位为传统价值观的捍卫者。

2023 年，俄罗斯最高法院宣布俄罗斯当局所谓的“国际 LGBTQ 运动”为极端主义组织，对 LGBTQ 活动施加可能严重的刑事处罚——或者，显然，在 Eksmo 的案例中，是对发布行为施加的处罚。

俄罗斯塔斯社报道称，Eksmo公司的几位高管在接受讯问后获准保释。但出版业并非俄罗斯唯一一个言论自由空间日渐萎缩的领域。

本月初，警方突袭了独立报纸《新报》的办公室，该报的联合创始人于 2021 年获得了诺贝尔和平奖。

俄罗斯国家通讯社 RIA-Novosti 援引内务部消息称，记者奥列格·罗尔杜金因涉嫌非法处理个人数据而被拘留接受讯问。罗尔杜金在听证会前否认有罪。

此案的寒蝉效应显而易见。

在 2022 年乌克兰遭到入侵后，《新报》被迫停止印刷发行，但仍继续在线出版；此次突袭将俄罗斯残存的自由媒体进一步推向边缘。

在俄罗斯，传播独立新闻本就举步维艰。政府封禁了Facebook和Instagram等热门社交媒体平台，并力推一款名为MAX的国控即时通讯应用，将其作为民众获取数字服务的默认门户。而就在《新报》遭突袭的同一天，俄罗斯最高法院将享有盛誉的人权组织“纪念”（Memorial）认定为“极端主义”组织。

联合国人权事务高级专员沃尔克·图尔克在一份声明中表示，这一认定“实际上是将俄罗斯的批判性人权工作定为犯罪”。

在打压新闻自由的同时，当局也在重新启用一些象征政治镇压的旧标志。几天前，俄罗斯联邦安全局学院（普京曾在此接受克格勃特工训练）被更名为费利克斯·杰尔津斯基学院，以纪念这位令人闻风丧胆的苏联秘密警察创始人。

1991年，杰尔津斯基在克格勃总部外的雕像被推倒，这是标志着苏联解体的象征性事件之一。但俄罗斯当局似乎执意要拥抱这个国家黑暗的极权主义历史。

朝日新闻/Getty Images

路透社周四报道称，波兰、爱沙尼亚、立陶宛和拉脱维亚驻俄罗斯大使馆就俄罗斯拆除位于西伯利亚城市托木斯克、纪念苏联秘密警察受害者的纪念馆一事向俄罗斯外交部提出抗议。本月初，俄罗斯在卡廷纪念馆（1940年苏联大规模处决波兰战俘的地点）设立展览，引发众怒。一些评论人士认为，该展览亵渎了卡廷纪念馆。

但如果俄罗斯政府正在复活苏联时代的幽灵——并让普通俄罗斯人的生活变得更加不便——普京本人却表现出公开的漠不关心。

周四，普京打破沉默，谈及3月初袭击该国首都的轮流断网事件。

“我不得不指出，大城市里也存在类似的情况——虽然罕见，但很不幸，确实会发生，”他说。“我指的是大都市地区出现的一些网络问题和中断。”

拉米尔·西特迪科夫/路透社

普京表示，此次引发争议的网络中断——影响了电子商务，导致许多应用程序和电子服务无法访问——“与预防恐怖袭击的行动有关”。但他似乎也暗示，公众对此知情的必要性有限。

“提前广泛传播公共信息可能会对行动发展造成不利影响，因为犯罪分子毕竟什么都能听到看到，”他说，“当然，如果他们得知了这些信息，他们就会调整自己的犯罪行为和犯罪计划。”

换句话说，战时生活意味着要忍受一些不便。而俄罗斯安全部门不断扩大和加深对公民生活的镇压，丝毫没有减弱的迹象。