A politician in the Russian Volga region city of Samara has been charged with “abusing press freedom” for a speech he gave in the regional assembly condemning Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, independent news channel 7x7 Horizontal Russia reported on Thursday. Grigory Yeremeyev, 69, a member of the Democratic Party of Russia, a party founded in the 1990s that is currently unrepresented at any level of government in the country, faces a fine of up to 100,000 rubles (€1,080) over a speech he gave in late December when he was the only politician to accept the annual invitation to parties not represented in the Samara Regional Duma to address the assembly. Yeremeyev also posted a transcript of his speech online, in which he said that Vladimir Putin had “long since understood the error” of invading Ukraine, but was now unable to withdraw his troops without going down in history as having lost the war.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6440135

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A politician in the Russian Volga region city of Samara has been charged with “abusing press freedom” for a speech he gave in the regional assembly condemning Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, independent news channel 7x7 Horizontal Russia reported on Thursday.

Grigory Yeremeyev, 69, a member of the Democratic Party of Russia, a party founded in the 1990s that is currently unrepresented at any level of government in the country, faces a fine of up to 100,000 rubles (€1,080) over a speech he gave in late December when he was the only politician to accept the annual invitation to parties not represented in the Samara Regional Duma to address the assembly.

Yeremeyev also posted a transcript of his speech online, in which he said that Vladimir Putin had “long since understood the error” of invading Ukraine, but was now unable to withdraw his troops without going down in history as having lost the war.

Yeremeyev suggested that the Samara deputies should apologise to their constituents, “share responsibility for the failure with Putin” and advise him to stop the invasion, and urged the body to encourage other regional parliaments to vote for a similar initiative.

Continuing the war would lead to the “moral degradation of both parties to the conflict” as propaganda and the daily murder of hundreds of citizens “become commonplace”, Yeremeyev warned. He said that if NATO could not defeat Russia, and vice versa, “the special military operation would crush human lives and destinies” and was “an irrational waste of financial resources”.

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The Duma also passed a resolution calling for Yeremeyev to be assessed as a “foreign agent”, and describing his speech as “a deliberate attempt to discredit” the assembly.

  • Skiluros@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    There is no verbal acrobatics, senior figures in his movement openly admitted that Navaliy and his movement supported the annexation of Crimea because the overwhelming the russian population are committed supporters of what is as a matter of fact genocidal imperialism. I will also add that his broader support of chauvinism is well documented.

    The “smart voting” approach was comically stupid. The non-United Russia candidates are all (almost without exception) shills for the regime as part of their Potemkin village “election” process.

    I stand by my statements that a “putin lite” option like Navaliy (or really most of the mainstream russian “opposition”) will always lose to the real deal.

    I don’t expect any super human efforts from the russians. Something as simple as recognizing that all the bad things in Russia are not the fault of someone else would be a start.

    Can you find one mainstream opposition figure that goes beyond “it’s all putin’s and EU’s fault, we are innocent angels!” I am genuinely curious. I know some public figures who admit this, but they universally hated both by the alleged opposition and the genocidal imperialist that make the overwhelming majority of russian society.

    Many countries have a lot of historical/systematic challenges, yet many often to do find a way (or at least keep trying). One can look at Iran (not just the current protests); arguably they are in an even more difficult position than the russians.

    • perestroika@slrpnk.netEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Let’s disagree then about whether verbal acrobatics occurred. I can’t convince myself that they did not occur.

      Regarding Iran… I was about to mention that country. Their strongest challenger to the tyrant(s) appears to be the shah’s son. A tyrant’s son. People shout “yavid shah” (long live the king) in the god damn 21st century. But their choice is game theoretically sound: he looks like a liberal democrat, at least from far away. He also has the education of a politologist - he has studied for the job he hopes to get.

      I can’t tell them “no, it’s stupid, please shout something else”. Well, the Kurds probably won’t shout his name anyway - to them, he’s as useful as a bicycle to fish. They help rock the boat, but want to swim away.

      The problem with revolutions is that people need hope of it passing quickly, and someone re-establishing order. I’m an anarchist, but I’m painfully aware that people’s ability to create a functioning anarchy is paper-thin. So they want someone to say soothing words, tell them that everything is well planned, trouble will be over soon, etc (sadly a sweet lie will also work).

      So, I ignored all the discussion about who Navalny truly was. I checked: he’s a lawyer. The other guy is KGB. I can’t blame people for liking a lawyer more than a KGB officer, especially if the latter does KGB stuff.

      Your question is a good one. Whom should a reasonable person recommend to Russians? Currently, I would advise them to consider either Ilya Yashin or Garri Kasparov. Both are alive, abroad (Yashin was imprisoned but exchanged) and look moderately capable of organizing things, if given a chance. I personally liked Ilya Leshii (Dmitry Petrov) but he got himself killed under Bakhmut. And he wasn’t a politician, but an anarchist.