Attendees hold placards during a memorial event in front of the closed Russian Embassy in Kyiv on July 29, 2023, marking one year anniversary of the Olenivka prison attack. On July 29, 2022, dozens of Ukrainian soldiers died in the bombardment of the Moscow-controlled jail of Olenivka in the eastern Donetsk region. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
President Vladimir Putin on Saturday defended an unprecedented crackdown on dissenting voices in Russia at a time of “armed conflict” with Ukraine, urging everyone to follow “certain rules.”
“It’s the year 2023, and Russia is engaged in an armed conflict with a neighbour. And I think that there should be a certain attitude towards people who harm us inside the country,” Putin told reporters in Saint Petersburg.
“We must keep in mind that in order for us to achieve success, including in a conflict zone, everyone needs to follow certain rules,” Putin added.
The Russian president was responding to a question from a reporter who asked him to comment on the recent jailing of a theatre director and a sociologist.
“The people were arrested for the words they said or wrote. Is this normal?” Andrei Kolesnikov, a veteran reporter for Kommersant daily, asked Putin.
READ ALSO: Strike Continues Until FG Meets Our Demands, NARD Insists
This week, Russian authorities detained prominent sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, 64, and accused him of calling for terrorism online.
In May, a Moscow court ordered the arrest of theatre director Yevgeniya Berkovich, 38, on charges of “justifying terrorism” over an award-winning play about Russian women recruited online to marry radical Islamists in Syria.
Putin said he did not know who Kagarlitsky and Berkovich were.
“I hear these names for the first time and do not really understand what they did or what was done to them,” Putin said. “I’m just telling you about my overall attitude towards the problem.”
Criticism of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine has been outlawed and most prominent members of the liberal opposition are either in jail or in exile.
Last week, authorities detained former separatist commander and nationalist blogger Igor Girkin on accusations of “extremism” after he criticised Putin.
AFP
Defender Michelle Alozie agreed, saying it was wrong that their draw with Canada and win over Australia had been called…
Joined as defendants in the suit are the Universal Basic Education Commission [UBEC] and the Delta State Universal Basic Education…
West, who now goes professionally as Ye, assured the platform he would not use his account to share antisemitic content…
Mari El is a Russian region located along the northern bank of the Volga River, and Yoshkar-Ola is its largest…
Morocco, one of the lowest-ranked teams at the tournament at 72 in the world, were supposed underdogs against the 17th-ranked…
It was gathered that all six victims were farmers, including the Vice Chairman of the Jama’atul Izalatul Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus-Sunnah,…