Vladimir Putin wanted to reassure the Russians on Monday: the methods of the USSR will, according to him, remain in the history books. The Russian president has in fact affirmed that “new massive repressions” in Russia, as in the Soviet era, were “unacceptable”, at a time when the Kremlin is nevertheless crushing any criticism of the war in Ukraine.
“The most important thing is that this does not happen again”
Since the Russian army’s offensive at the end of February 2022, justice has severely punished citizens who oppose the conflict, in words or in actions. Thousands of Russians have been sentenced to fines or heavy prison terms for this reason.
“When we talk about victims of political repression, we are talking about very different people. There are those who, in fact, were opponents of the Soviet system and those who were its supporters and found themselves behind bars for various internal political reasons,” Vladimir Putin said. “There were people there completely by chance. All this is important, but for us, the most important thing is that all this does not happen again in the history of our country, because it had an immense and difficult to achieve harm for our people and our State. he continued, quoted by the Interfax agency.
The Kremlin ambivalent about the USSR and Stalin
“Such a lack of rights to decide the fate of people is unacceptable if we want our country to have a future,” added the Russian president, who was speaking during a meeting of the Human Rights Council, a body advisory attached to the Kremlin.
Moscow does not deny Soviet repressions, but minimizes them, presenting them as a tragedy with no real culprit. At the same time, the Kremlin loudly glorifies the power of the USSR and Stalin, particularly since the attack on Ukraine which it presents as a “denazification”, in line with the legacy of the Second World War.