Kozlovsky, Part 2

Filed under: Russia

Youth political activist Oleg Kozlovsky in military
hospital detention in Ryzan, Russia

There's nothing that is more predictable than that if you don't stand up a to bully the first time he misbehaves, he will repeat himself ad nauseam until he is stopped.

Thus, when the Kremlin saw little Western opposition to the illegal induction of youth political activist Oleg Kozlovsky a few months ago into the Russian army as a means of silencing him (we were the first Western source to report this incident), it naturally decided the tactic was viable, and has now moved against a second activist. The Other Russia website reports:

A legal case for alleged draft dodging has been mounted against an opposition activist in the Russian city of Kirov. As the Sobkor@ru news agency reported on February 19th, the target of the case is Denis Shadrin, a leader of the local branch of the United Civil Front party. On Tuesday, Shadrin's mother received a call from the local prosecutor's office, and was instructed to appear as a witness for a hearing involving a criminal case initiated against her son. The lead prosecutor told her that the case was being mounted after Shadrin refused to accept an enlistment notice on several occasions.
Shadrin recounted a different story, explaining that he had not been visited by any officers from the military enlistment office, and could not have refused a summons. In his opinion, the staff of the Leninsky district enlistment office were using threats to coerce people into serving as witnesses and signing off that others had renounced their enlistment notices. Furthermore, Shadrin explained that he was not fit for military service for health reasons, as he suffers from scoliosis. Corresponding documents were recently forwarded to the enlistment office.
Denis Shadrin has been targeted by his Kirov prosecutors before. In 2007, a different criminal case charged the activist with "forcible assertion of right." Consequently, a misdemeanor charge was launched. On February 1st, 2008, the case was suspended for lack of evidence by a magistrate of the Kirovsky oblast judicial district.

It's an affront to the very notion of democracy that Western leaders are standing silently by as the cream of Russia's youth is packed off to concentration camps run by the Russian military to be subjected to the worst forms of torture imaginable (conscripts are routinely killed in the most barbaric manner) and silenced utterly, no different than in the days of the Soviet Gulag.

My blog La Russophobe has details about another major human rights activist, Lev Ponomarev, who is now facing persecution by the neo-Soviet regime, including a sensational video Ponomarev obtained documenting horrific human rights abuses in Russian penal colonies.

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La Russophobe says:

Liar. Kozlovsky was drafted as a private illegally, having BOTH medical immunity AND officer status. Even the military itself has recognized his medical disability, that is why he is being held at a hospital under lock-down conditions cut off from communication with his organizations. What's more, Russian army camps have proved themselves at least as bad as the GULAG, if not worse:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/26/ap/world/mainD8FCIRV80.shtml

You can run, but can't hide, from the truth. The USSR couldn't, and neither can you.

vanka says:

As an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, I personally know many people people who were drafted into the Soviet (and later Russian) Army - and the stories they tell are horrifying. Every eligible Russian man is drafted for two years - the first year he receives nothing but contempt and beatings from his officers and those who are on their second year; while in his second year he puts into practice that which he has learned on the new draftees.

My father, who served in the late 70's, saw very little difference in conditions between the army and prison. The conditions were especially hard to Christians as most refused to swear an oath of loyalty and allegiance to the Soviet "Republic". Most were sent to the "Stroiy-bot" divisions - the army's version of hard labor camps. Many were beaten within inches of death for their refusal to take up arms in the service of communism. Some never made it home.

The most famous case of such everyday inhumane cruelty is that of Ivan Moiseyev - I encourage you to do a Google search - who was tortured to death by the Soviet Army. His body was sent home to his parents in a sealed casket; which according to law was not allowed to be opened. When his family opened it anyway; they found that Ivan was subjected to the most horrific tortures - his body was covered in welts, bruises, burns, scars, and several metal barbs were found in his heart.

This was not an isolated incident either - more than 90% of the people to whom I spoke to report report that they were abused physically. At least 10% were beaten to within a hair of death. This did not just happen to Christians either - those who toed the party line were also recipients of the army's cruel affections; Christians were just more likely to be targeted.

Many will say that such barbarianism occurred during Soviet times and no is no longer practiced today. But government bureaucracies and institutions are slow and hard to change - especially when no one is interested in changing them. The Soviet Army has always been good at keeping nasty secrets - and the Russian Army carries on this tradition.

entering puberty, your blatant lies and whitewashing of barbarianism will not stand up to the scrutiny of even a moderately informed observer.

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Kozlovsky, Part 2

Filed under: Russia

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