2023-09-23 14:28:20
The case of Anna Politkovskaya is still shocking to this day: During Vladimir Putin’s first presidency, she was considered one of his harshest critics, and she made enemies especially with her reporting on the second Chechen war. She reported on human rights violations and corruption and also took on Ramzan Kadyrov, the ruler of Chechnya.
In 2006, Anna Politkovskaya was murdered, shot in front of her apartment in Moscow. Now her daughter Vera is publishing a book (“My mother would have called it war”, Tropen-Verlag, 154 pages, 22 euros), in which she gives insights into her mother’s private life. Shortly after Putin invaded Ukraine, she fled. In an interview she now gives her assessment of the brutal Putin regime.
Russia: Journalist is critical of Putin and Navalny
Opposite „Welt“ Vera Politkovskaya explains why it could come to this, why the government became even more brutal, even more corrupt, up to and including Putin’s unleashed war. “In my opinion, an important role is played by society, which did not react back then and does not react like a healthy society today. “The murder of opposition members, for example, and today also their mass arrests,” explains Politkovskaya.
But that is only part of the problem, because society is not reacting because there are other problems. “There is great poverty in Russia. If people’s horizons are limited exclusively to how they should feed their family and pay for their apartment, then they don’t look beyond their own little world.”
Vera Politkovskaya is not only critical of Putin’s rule, but also of his most famous critic, Alexei Navalny, who is already in a prison camp.
It is also discussed again and again whether he would be suitable as an alternative president. Politkovskaya explains that she does not see him as the head of Russia. “But we are talking in a situation where his candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections is impossible.”
In the current situation, in which the political system is tailored to Putin and he will certainly win the 2024 elections, “such changes and shocks must occur globally in Russia, in society and the political vertical, so that opposition members like “Nawalny can run for office in the first place,” Politkovskaya continued.
Russia: “Putin’s death will not improve the situation”
In Russia, propaganda and a “pathological attitude towards the Second World War” have created a real cult, she says, which appears “barbaric and bizarre”. Politkovskaya’s sobering assessment: “Today there are not the slightest, not even minimal, signs that the situation in Russia could change. Realistically, that’s not going to happen any time soon.”
At the beginning of the war, many people still had the hope that everything would return to normal when it was all over. “No way,” says Politkovskaya. “Today you can see that nothing has changed. Some say that once Putin is gone, everything will be fine. No. I am firmly convinced that the end of the war, whatever the outcome, will not improve the situation. Putin’s death, however it comes about, will not improve the situation. We have long, long years ahead of us after resolving the situation with Ukraine. Nobody knows in which direction it will develop.”
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