As the country of Russia attempts to reassert itself as a global power player, much like it was during the Cold War, some of the old habits that affected the totalitarian country during that time period have again emerged as a major crisis. One of the myriad problems that have emerged is the silencing of critics of Vladimir Putin and allies of his policies. The recent case of Viacheslav Senchenko pans this out.

The recent incident has again highlighted the regime’s efforts that have transformed Russia from quasi democracy into a dictatorship is the forced apology that a critic of an ally of Russian “President” Vladimir Putin made on Friday January 15th 2016, after criticizing Mr. Putin in an online post. “I apologize I was wrong,” Viacheslav Senchenko said in an interview with a Russian radio station on Friday. “I acted hastily and emotionally, I am really sorry Mr. Senchenko continued.

The statement that Mr. Senchenko was referring was posted online Thursday where he said that Ramzan Kadrov who is the leader of Chechnya had “discredited Russia” by calling the opponents of Vladimir Putin “enemies of the people” a term which dates back to the Stain era where hundreds of thousands of people were killed by the Soviet authorities.

“In the course of these conversations, various hints were made and certain things became obvious” Mr. Senchenko said referring to meetings that he had with representatives of the Chechen people following the posting of his remarks. “For example, whether I liked to walk across Red square”, a references to the area in Russia where opposition politician, Boris Nemtsov was assassinated on February 27th, 2015.

The exact wording of the phrase that Mr. Kadyrov used toward Mr. Senchenko was “an enemy of Russia” and that he urged the courts to bring Mr. Senchenko before a judge. Mr. Senchenko then went onto say “Ramzan, you disgrace Russia.” A full reading of Mr. Senchenko’s Facebook post can be found here.

Mr. Kadyrov has been in charge of the volatile Chechnya region since 2007.

“I was wrong, I let my emotions get the better of me” he continued in his apology.
The assassination of Mr. Nemtsov sent shockwaves around Russia because it showed how far Vladimir Putin would actually go in silencing people who disagree with him (Mr. Nemtsov openly criticized the war in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.).

This was not the first time that Mr. Kadyrov sided with Kremlin allies, as he called one of the people in custody for the Nemtsov assassination, “a true patriot of Russia”.

Chechnya has been a volatile region in the North of Russia since the Stalin era and has continued to cause problems inside of Russia with sporadic attacks from attackers inside the region from time to time.

In response to the forced apology, Mr. Kadyrov wrote on Instagram, where the video of Mr. Senchenko’s apology was posted, that “he accepted the apology.”

In conclusion, if Russia and Vladimir Putin were serious about making the transformation from a dictatorship to a free and open political system, Putin would stop these threats toward opponents and allow for a free exchange of speech and dialogue throughout his country on important issues of the day.

Links to sources:

1) Putin Critic who Criticized Putin Ally Apologizes: Reuters Link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-deaththreat-idUSKCN0UT28I

2) Critic of Chechnya leader apology: BBC Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35327312

3) Nemtsov Political Assassination: BBC Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31669061

4) Facebook Post by Senchenko: https://www.facebook.com/senchenko.konstantin/posts/759301064203797

5) Bing Translator of Senchenko’s Post to English: https://www.bing.com/translator

6) Council on Foreign Relations: Chechnya Terrorism Defined: https://www.cfr.org/separatist-terrorism/chechen-terrorism-russia-chechnya-separatist/p9181