Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumIn Putin's Russia, the Arrests Are Spreading Quickly and Widely
They came for Dmitry Kolker, an ailing physicist, in the intensive care ward. They came for Ivan Fedotov, a hockey star, as he was leaving practice with a film crew in tow. They came for Vladimir Mau, a state university rector, the week he was reelected to the board of Gazprom.
The message sent by these high-profile detentions: Nearly anyone is now punishable in Vladimir Putins Russia.
The flurry of arrests across the country in recent days has signaled that the Kremlin is intent on tightening the noose around Russian society even further. It appears to be a manifestation of Putins declaration in the early weeks of his war in Ukraine that Russia needed to cleanse itself of pro-Western scum and traitors, and it is creating an unmistakable chill.
Every day feels like it could be the last, Leonid Gozman, 71, a commentator who continues to speak out against Putin and the war, said in a phone interview from Moscow, acknowledging the fear that he, too, could be arrested.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/putins-russia-arrests-spreading-quickly-120015487.html
TheRealNorth
(9,481 posts)The Republicans will forgive you.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)Been making threats like this for years. They might get their way.