This text was originally published as an editorial at Rabkor web site.
As you know, a dragon never explains the principles by which he chooses its victims. Never in any legend or fairy tale did the heroes manage to explain themselves to it, let alone reach a rational agreement with the monster.
The Russian judicial and legal system is now undergoing widespread dragonization. The State Duma adopts laws that formalize and regulate lawlessness and arbitrariness. Investigative bodies and courts make decisions while ignoring case materials, obvious facts, and their own rules. But it is precisely this kind of behavior that is considered “natural” under the circumstances and no longer arouses any surprise either among observers or even among the victims themselves.
A typical recent example is the case of Andrey Morev, a municipal deputy, who was accused of sticking the now illegal “Smart Voting” logo on his car. Provocateurs put this sticker on the automobile; there is a video that proves this. But the Zamoskvoretsky court simply ignored the video and punished the deputy. Now he will not be able to participate in the elections.
In Irkutsk, a guilty verdict was announced in the so-called “elevator” case. The story is extremely confusing, chiefly because the investigation was unable to explain the essence of the crime, what and to whom the damage was done: the elevators that caused the scandal are working, their price was in line with regional standards. Nevertheless, Andrey Levchenko, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Irkutsk region, was sentenced to 9 years in a penal colony and a fine of 1,600,000 rubles. The main defendant in the case, Oleg Khamulyak, was sentenced to 8 years in a penal colony and a fine of 1,300,000 rubles. Also, their colleague Anton Ryabikin was sentenced by the court to 7 years in prison and a fine of 1,300,000 rubles. Two more people, Dmitry Kozhenov and Sergey Chernyshov, received suspended sentences. In addition to these harsh sentences, the same court satisfied the claim for compensation to the Capital Repair Fund of the Irkutsk Region to the tune of 55,721,469 rubles and 29 kopecks. How this amount was calculated remains a mystery, since throughout the trial the figures declared by the prosecution kept “dancing” every now and then.
It’s no secret that Andrei Levchenko is not just a regional politician, but also the son of the former “red governor” of the Irkutsk region, and now a deputy of the State Duma, Sergei Levchenko. His arrest was seen by many as a hostage-taking.
Of course, the younger Levchenko was tried not for political, but for economic malfeasance. And in such cases, we should remember that there is no smoke without fire. But the verdict handed down by the court in Irkutsk speaks for itself. Even if we believe the prosecution’s version of events, the scale of the punishment is so disproportionate, is so contrary to the way in which decisions are typically made in such cases, that it is simply impossible to evaluate it as anything other than an act of reprisal. Let me remind you that literally days before the verdict in the “elevator case” the owner of the Listvyazhnaya mine, who was accused of killing 51 people due to gross violations of safety regulations, was released from prison. The final verdict in that case has not yet been passed, and the businessman, who, according to the investigation, was responsible for the mass death of miners, has escaped with a written order not to leave.
The rector of the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (MHSSES) Sergey Zuev has also been in jail for many months on the very strange charge of paying salaries to employees whose work, according to investigators, was of insufficient quality. How investigators are able to judge the specifics of humanitarian research is a separate question. But all these examples clearly demonstrate how arbitrary the views of our judiciary can be in matters relating to the life and freedom of people.
“We are gradually getting used to state repressions, and getting tired of being surprised at cynicism and unscrupulousness,” writes our columnist Sergei Ross, who is currently serving an administrative sentence for yet another ridiculous charge, the essence of which neither he nor, it seems, the court itself understood. But this normalization is a very bad sign. The ability to resent lawlessness every time leaves a person sensitive to injustice and unwilling to give up on his rights. Cases such as Andrei Levchenko’s - in which the authorities obviously have nothing to cling to, but in order to prevent the nomination of an inconvenient candidate, they create a provocation from scratch - again make one marvel at their arrogance and meanness. The more that such shameless odious provocations appear, the faster this government will destroy the remnants of its authority among the citizens. And authority is everything on which power is based.
Yet no matter how dramatically the destinies mentioned above may develop, the main lesson from all of this is that constructiveness, moderation, and healthy caution in no way will save any inhabitant of our country from the troubles that can be dropped on them by limitless, arbitrary, power. Of course, we should not conclude that one should not be cautious, or be constructive, or give sound, balanced and, if possible, objective assessments of the events taking place. However, if someone thinks that this will help in relations with those who now decide our destinies, then he is mistaken.
There is no need to try to calculate, predict and anticipate the logic of the dragon. Arbitrariness, of course, has its own logic, but it is incompatible with the logic of ordinary philistine behavior, just as with the usual political logic. It is determined by the variety of phobias, illusions, calculations, mistakes, stupidities, plans and ambitions of many dragon heads, which are in far from harmonious relations with each other. And most importantly – all the heads of the dragon themselves are completely disoriented. Only they are disoriented in different ways.
The psychological problem also lies in the fact that the dragonization of Russian power has occurred gradually, gaining momentum as contradictions accumulated and resources were exhausted. To think that power is the same always and everywhere is the most dangerous illusion (and it does not matter who propagates this – rightist libertarians, apolitical laymen or anarchist leftists). Power changes, evolves, develops, degrades, and decomposes, depending on historical circumstances, on the state of its economic foundations and institutions. Any power can and should be rational until the moment when the historical and material conditions that ensure its reproduction disappear. The people described by the collective concept of the “Kremlin” lost their rationality as the systemic crisis of the raw material export economy grew, inscribed in the neoliberal global economy, which, in turn, is becoming more and more chaotic under the influence of its own contradictions.
As you know, the gods deprive those they want to destroy of their reason. Power, historically objectively doomed, becomes irrational and insane. This has happened more than once with different societies and in different eras. Today we are experiencing it ourselves.
Irrationality is the companion of fear, uncertainty, and ignorance. Fear and disorientation breed aggression, and the numerous dragon heads experience what is happening differently, spewing flames in different directions, often even at each other, negotiating, alas, with no one and nothing.
The change of historical epochs is happening before our eyes. And at this stage, the course of events depends on us only to a small extent. It is useless to hide or to hide your principles (this, as we see in many examples, does not help anyone). There are no guarantees. You just need to calmly stick to your line. The task is to save yourself and keep your mind until the moment when new opportunities open up, when the future can not only be imagined, but approached and created.
Most likely waiting for that moment won’t take a long time.
Making a Deal with the Dragon
Law is never absolute - it is subject to interpretation. Therein lies the dragon. Your country is experiencing firsthand the new world order, the de-dollarization of economics and the rise of a multi-polar system that will remove the colonial chieftains and reward equally the many successes of smaller, developing nations. All eyes are on Russia now, with her vast resources and innovative banking ventures. Small minds may fear this, and resort to irrational behaviors. The U.S. and Western Europe must bend now, or they will break. And Russia will embrace her dragons, since they are auspicious and give her strength!
Your final sentences seems prescient. Extreme arbitrary repression is symptomatic of a dysfunctional oligarchy flailing about madly as its fortunes sink. Unfortunately the situation is also terrifying in the face of the megalomanic determination of the US establishment to humiliate and destroy Russia as recently expressed in Zelensky's vow to "take back" Crimea. The dragon has nuclear weapons!