Analysis

Putin Returning Russia to the Bad Old Days
Members of the all-girl punk band 'Pussy Riot,' sit behind bars during a court hearing in Moscow on July 20, 2012. The band members were charged with hooliganism for barging into a Moscow church and singing a 'punk prayer' calling for the ouster of President Vladimir Putin on February 21, 2012. The harsh treatment of the trio has become a rallying cause for the anti-Putin opposition. (NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images)
August 16, 2012
| Security
| Russia and Central Asia
Summary
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign of fear and intimidation against his critics harkens back to the oppression Russians endured in the Soviet era. The intelligence service, of which Putin was a member, is conducting both domestic and foreign activities with little oversight. The courts, as in the Soviet era, are beholden to political authorities, dispensing justice along pre-determined lines.

The Soviet era use of mass arrests and psychiatry as a tool of repression has not been revived, but the Kremlin today does selectively target opponents and has the same level of contempt and intolerance toward them. Nevertheless, opposition groups that arose during recent parliamentary and presidential elections show no signs of going away or of being cowed by Putin’s heavy-handed tactics.  

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