Putin defends arrests of critics in Russia during ‘armed conflict’ with Ukraine
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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking during a press conference following the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MOSCOW - 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,” he told reporters in St Petersburg, where he had met African leaders.
He added: “We must keep in mind that in order for us to achieve success, including in a conflict zone, everyone needs to follow certain rules.”
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?” Mr Andrei Kolesnikov, a veteran reporter for Kommersant daily, asked Mr Putin.
This week, the 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.
Mr 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,” Mr 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, the authorities detained former separatist commander and nationalist blogger Igor Girkin on accusations of “extremism” after he criticised Mr Putin.
Mr Putin also said that an African initiative could be a basis for peace in Ukraine, but that Ukrainian attacks made it hard to realise.
“There are provisions of this peace initiative that are being implemented,” he said. “But there are things that are difficult or impossible to implement.”
Reuters reported in June that African mediation in the conflict could begin with confidence-building measures followed by a cessation of hostilities agreement accompanied by negotiations between Russia and the West.
Mr Putin said that one of the points in the initiative was a ceasefire.
“But the Ukrainian army is on the offensive, they are attacking, they are implementing a large-scale strategic offensive operation… We cannot ceasefire when we are under attack.”
On the question of starting peace talks, he said: “We did not reject them… In order for this process to begin, there needs to be agreement on both sides.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected the idea of a ceasefire now that would leave Russia in control of nearly a fifth of his country and give its forces time to regroup after 17 grinding months of war. AFP, REUTERS
