Index on Censorship weekly round-up
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Friday, 02 August 2024
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Andrei Pivovarov, Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza in Germany after their release. Photo: [link removed]
There is a tendency to see Russia as a huge monolithic entity with a matching ideology. This is the expansionist, imperial Russia that poisons its enemies and kidnaps their children. It is the Russia of the gulags, of Putin, Stalin and the Tsars. But there is another Russia. It is the Russia of the eight brave students who stood in Red Square in 1968 to demonstrate against the invasion of Czechoslovakia and inspired the founders of this magazine. It the Russia of the dissidents of the 1970s and the reformers of the 1990s. It is the Russia of Pussy Riot, of Alexander Litvinenko, Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny.
This is the Russia of Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Russian activist, politician, journalist and historian released this week in a prisoner swap with Russian spies held in the West.
Much has been made of the detention and release of American journalist Evan Gershkovich – and rightly so. The Wall Street Journal reporter has become an important symbol of the fundamental values of a free media. It is to his eternal credit that his final request before release was an interview with Vladimir Putin. We also welcome the release of Alsu Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist from the Tatar/Bashkir service.
But it is Vladimir Kara-Murza who most fully represents the dissident spirit of Russia that runs counter to the authoritarian tendency that has dominated the country for so much of its recent history.
He is often described simply as one of the fiercest opponents of Putin, But Kara-Murza is so much more than that. He is above all the keeper of the flame of the Russian dissident tradition. He, more than anyone, understands the power of this alternative version of Russian identity.
Supporters of Index interested in the subject should watch the four-part documentary series, They Chose Freedom ([link removed]) , directed and presented by Kara-Murza in 2005. The film is edited by his wife Evgenia, who has led the campaign for his release. Two decades later it is still acts as a powerful reminder of the courage of those who spoke out against the Soviet system. It examines the roots of the dissident movement in the weekly poetry readings held in Mayakovsky Square in the 1950s. It includes interviews with the key players in the movement, including Vladminir Bukovsky, Anatoly Shcharansky and three of the participants of the Red Square demonstration of 1968, Pavel Litvinov, Natalya Gorbanevskaya and Viktor Fainberg.
In April 2023, shortly before he was sentenced to 25 years for charges linked to his opposition to the war in Ukraine, Kara-Murza said: “I know the that the day will come when the darkness engulfing our country will clear. Our society will open its eyes and shudder when it realises what crimes were committed in its name.”.
The release comes after reports earlier this year that Kara-Murza had been transferred to a harsher prison regime and that his health was deteriorating. A image shared on Telegram (see above) by fellow dissident Ilya Yashin, also released in the prisoner swap, show Kara-Murza this morning in Germany where they will hold a press conference later today. We await news that he and family will finally be able to welcome him back to Britain, which they have made their home.
Martin Bright
Editor at Large
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** Index welcomes release of Vladimir Kara-Murza and Evan Gershkovich from jail
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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris greet Evan Gershkovich on his arrival on US soil. Photo: x.com/POTUS
A prisoner swap involving 26 people held in Russia, Belarus, the USA, Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland has taken place in Ankara, the largest of the post-WWII era, leading to the release of journalists, human rights activists and dissidents. Index welcomes the news after campaigning for their release ([link removed]) .
** First they came for the Greens
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Soviet prisoners of war covering a mass grave after the Babi Yar massacre on 1 October 1941.
Photo: Johannes Hähle (1906–1944)
Earlier this year, as the upper echelons of Germany’s Green Party prepared to descend on the south-western town of Biberach for their annual meeting, demonstrators blocked access to the town hall with tractors, paving stones, sandbags and manure.
Things took a more aggressive turn when three police officers were injured by protesters hurling objects. Police intervened with pepper spray and a protester smashed a window of federal minister of agriculture Cem Özdemir’s car. The Green Party cancelled the meeting because of safety concerns.
According to German parliament figures, 44% of the politically motivated attacks recorded in 2023 targeted Green Party representatives, three times as many as their coalition partners or the opposition. Find out why it has all gone sour for the Greens ([link removed]) .
** The unstilled voice of Gazan theatre
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A performance in Gaza, before the theatre was destroyed. Photo: Credit: Laura Silvia Battaglia for Cospe onlus
They emerge very slowly from a black hole in the background. Men and women, their faces tired, all take heavy steps. Some are dragging a bag, others have mattresses and household objects. The stage is lit in green and red, illuminating the young actors and dancers one by one, emphasising their individual suffering. The music – rapper Hijazi’s remix of the traditional Palestinian choral song Tarweeda Shamaly – repeats in a hypnotic loop to tell us that, for 70 years, the story of Palestinians has always been the same: moving forward in an exhausting and constantly uprooting process. The Palestinians call it Nakba and this dance-theatre show named The Story is Sick by the Ayyam al Masrah company, the only one active in the strip, was performed just over a year ago live in Gaza. Now the theatre has been destroyed and the company is gone, writes Laura Silvia Battaglia ([link removed]) .
** Belarus | Join us on 5 August for an evening of art, activism and film
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As the fourth anniversary of Belarus' rigged 2020 elections approaches, join Index on Censorship for an evening of art, activism and an exploration of the true stories of Belarus' political dissidents behind bars.
Featuring a panel discussion including President of PEN Belarus, Taciana Niadbaj; Belarusian poet and writer Hanna Komar; and Mike Lerner and Martin Herring from Roast Beef Productions, the evening will include a special film screening of The Accidental President (Roast Beef Productions) and exhibition launch of Letters from Lukashenka's Prisoners, designed and curated by Martha Hegarty in partnership with Index on Censorship.
Tickets are free. Register here ([link removed]) .
** From the Index archives
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** When justice goes rogue
by Melanio Escobar and Stefano Pozzebon
June 2019
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Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has claimed victory in this week's elections in the country despite what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called "overwhelming evidence" that opposition leader Edmundo González had actually got more votes. The odds have long been stacked against the opposition, as we see from this piece from 2019 ([link removed]) .
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Index on Censorship defends people's freedom to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution. We publish censored writers and artists, monitor and campaign against censorship, and encourage debate.
We rely on donations from readers and supporters. By donating ([link removed]) to Index you help us to protect freedom of expression and to support those who are denied that right.
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