In another blow to opposition politics in Russia, Andrei Pivovarov, former executive director of Open Russia, was reportedly removed from a plane flying to Warsaw.
The opposition movement announced its closure last week, seeking to avoid its supporters being jailed ahead of parliamentary elections.
Open Russia’s founder and vocal Kremlin critic, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has long been considered a thorn in Putin’s side, sniping at the increasingly autocratic tendencies of his regime, from the relative security of the United Kingdom.
Pivovarov Detained Prior to Boarding Plane
Pivovarov was reportedly removed from a plane at St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport as he was boarding a flight to Warsaw. “I have just been removed from the plane from Pulkovo (airport)…The plane was about to take off.” Andrei Pivovarov wrote on his Twitter account on Monday evening, 1st June. Further detail was provided later by Pivovarov’s colleagues, again via Twitter: “He was detained as part of a criminal case under Art. 284.1 of the Criminal Code related to violations of the law on ‘undesirable organizations.”
The decision to shut Open Russia is linked to bills in the Russian parliament strengthening criminal punishment for Russian citizens who support “undesirable” organizations.
The decision to shut down Open Russia, established by the former oil tycoon, is linked to bills proceeding through the Russian parliament strengthening criminal punishment for Russian citizens who support or work for so-called “undesirable” organizations. Open Russia has been designated “undesirable” since 2017 in line with the law that targets groups alleged to receive foreign backing or funding and which are accused of political interference.
Retroactive Criminalisation
In reality, the law potentially criminalises not just political activists and workers, but anyone who has donated to, or expressed sympathy for, any organisation in the past that is subsequently designated “undesirable”. The implications of this may not be immediately clear to readers brought up in a pluralist Western society founded on the rule of law… To put it simply, you can support a group or non-governmental organisation that is perfectly legal; but at any point in future that organisation or entity can be declared illegal, and you will retroactively become an ‘enemy of the people’.
Anyone who has donated to Open Russia, or even supported it online, is ‘legally’ open to prosecution.
The detention of Pivovarov is not a surprise in the context of spiralling repression in both Russia and Belarus, and he must have been prepared for such an act by a desperate regime. But harassing, jailing and silencing the leaders of opposition groups is simply the thin end of the wedge. Anyone who has donated to Open Russia, supported it or even re-shared material it has produced via any electronic medium, is ‘legally’ open to prosecution.
Anyone naïve enough to think that Putin won’t use this ‘carte blanche’ to crack down on the slightest resistance to his rule, and to tighten the noose around civil society, has not been paying attention…