In search of Russia’s elusive repression strategy

From the standpoint of responsibility, blame, or, ultimately, ethics, the question of intent – i.e., whether those in the Kremlin actually want bad things to happen to their critics – is largely unknowable and in many ways irrelevant. Putin presides over a country where such things happen and where law enforcement fails to punish the perpetrators, and it is he that is morally responsible. But the question of intent does matter if one is seeking to identify a coherent policy, because a coherent policy can be changed at will with varying degrees of effort. The current Kremlin may very well benefit from a climate of fear that helps keep the masses in line, and that may be the reason it not only tolerates but promotes this climate. Yet to a large extent many of the forces that perpetuate it are not exactly under the Kremlin’s control. Repressions and human rights abuses in Russia, in other words, happen for other, myriad reasons besides Kremlin policy and those reasons will still need to be addressed, no matter who sits in Moscow.

• Primary Source

ECFR: Commentary, 11.04.16: Changing of the guard: Putin's law enforcement reforms http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_changing_of_the_guard_putins_law_enforcement_reforms_6084

Wkipedia: National Guard of Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Guard_of_Russia

BBC News, 06.04.16: Putin creates new National Guard in Russia 'to fight terrorism' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35975840

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