Russian police have arrested more than 8,000 antiwar protesters in Russia as the Russian military intensifies its invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia’s lower house of parliament has passed a new law to criminalize the distribution of what the state considers to be “false news” about military operations, and remaining independent news outlets in the country are shutting down under pressure from the authorities. We speak with Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair for the leading Russian environmental organization Ecodefense, who won the 2021 Right Livelihood Award — the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize” — for defending the environment and mobilizing grassroots opposition to the coal and nuclear industries in Russia. Slivyak describes Putin’s attempts to shut down independent media within Russia and the “pure propaganda” his regime is spreading on state-sponsored media to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN:This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, as we turn to look at Russia’s escalating crackdown domestically following its invasion of Ukraine. Since Russia attacked Ukraine, more than 8 000 antiwar protesters have been detained. Meanwhile, Russia’s lower house of parliament has just passed a new law to criminalize the distribution of what the state considers to be “false news” about military operations, like calling the attack “war.” Violators of the law could face 15 years in prison.
Vladimir Slivyak, still with us. He is co-chair of the leading Russian environmental organization Ecodefense, won the 2021 Right Livelihood Award, the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize,” for defending the environment and mobilizing grassroots opposition to the coal and nuclear industries in Russia.
Vlad, what was your response to antiwar protests throughout Russia? Thousands were arrested. And talk about what people understand, what is the feeling in Russia, and Putin’s crackdown.
VLADIMIR SLIVYAK: Well, first of all, I think it’s very hard to imagine, for people in the West or in the U.S.A. or European Union, how Russian propaganda is working. I mean, you’ve got an access to different sources of information, to different TV channels, and Russians don’t have this. The majority of Russians, around 70%, just watch the first TV channel. This channel is controlled by the state and is filled with propaganda that is anti-Ukrainian. It makes people believe that something bad is happening in Ukraine.
But, I mean, I was a bit surprised, actually, that even in a dictatorship country like Russia — and Russia is dictatorship today — people actually went to protest, and the thousands of people went on the street. And, I mean, although it’s still not that mass protest, but even this number — I mean, I think it’s well over 10,000 of people that went to protest since the beginning. Well, it’s pretty impressive, taking into account what’s going on in Russia, how media controlled, how much repression is there right now. That’s my take.
AMY GOODMAN:What about media outlets that were shut down like Rain or Echo of Moscow? Explain their significance.
VLADIMIR SLIVYAK:It is indeed very important. Unfortunately, independent media are very small. And that’s because over the last decade Putin was basically shutting down every influential independent media in the country. And those two are — well, right now we have only one more or less independent media in the country, which is Novaya Gazeta, or a New Newspaper, if you translate it, which still puts a lot of antiwar propaganda — or, not propaganda, but antiwar information. We are left with one newspaper that offers an alternative viewpoint. It could be shut down as well, according to me. But the Echo Moscow and the TV Rain being the main sources of information, of alternative to governmental information, to — well, in a country like Russia, with 150 million of people, now people cannot really get this alternative information anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: And it’s also interesting to note that in occupied Kherson now, in the south of Ukraine, that the Ukrainian television has been turned off, and they’re now getting Russian government media.
VLADIMIR SLIVYAK: Yeah. Putin has been doing a crackdown on civil society and the free media for a very long period of time. This policy is what is causing the current Russian situation. The government has destroyed all civil society structures and virtually eliminated any organizations that can organize mass protests. Putin also closed down free media to ensure that people don’t have access to independent information. This is what he will do to Ukraine, if he ever takes it over.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, chaired by Putin, who also warned that Moscow could restore the death penalty, after Russian was removed from Europe’s top rights group, the U.N. human rights group — a chilling statement that shocked human rights activists in a country that has not had capital punishment for a quarter of a century. I’m reading a report.
VLADIMIR SLIVYAK:This is shocking. But looking at what Russian regime or Putin regime been doing over last decade, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like impossible. I think Russians can do — I mean, Russian regime can do this.
AMY GOODMAN:I just wanted to comment that Rain TV’s final broadcast was completed, and they played a loop of Swan Lake. This was a direct reference to what Soviet authorities did when they wanted bad news to be buried, including the 1991 coup attempt which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Vlad?
VLADIMIR SLIVYAK: Yeah, that’s correct. You know, TV used to show something like this when the leader of a country was dead. So, when something like that placed on the TV, people — I mean, a lot of people in Russia start to remember that back in the Soviet times they could see something like that on the television, when the big boss of the Soviet Union could be dead. So, now people — well, people still doing jokes about this. And, well, I would probably just stop there, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Vlad — we have 30 seconds — the significance of the increasing sanctions against the leadership in Russia?
VLADIMIR SLIVYAK:Those are very powerful sanctions. It is a good thing that so many powerful sanctions were imposed by the international community. It’s hitting Russian economy very much. And I think, in this situation, that’s the only way to stop war, to cut out resources for continuation of war for Putin regime.
AMY GOODMAN:Are you concerned that Putin could increase the sanctions?
VLADIMIR SLIVYAK:I believe that if the rest the world does not reduce resources for Putin regime, the regime will enter more wars and there’ll be more war in Europe. So I support any sanction against Putin regime.
AMY GOODMAN:Do you feel afraid to return to Russia?
VLADIMIR SLIVYAK: Well, I’m afraid, but this is not the most important thing right now. Peace is the most important thing right at this moment.
AMY GOODMAN:Vladimir Slivyak, thank you for being here, co-chair of Ecodefense, the leading Russian environmental group, and Right Livelihood Award recipient.
When we come back, we’re going to go to where we started, and that’s Ukraine. We’re going to speak with a Ukrainian American journalist who says the Ukraine of his childhood is being erased. Stay with us.
