It has become an almost daily litany. Every morning, Russian social networks take stock of the latest searches, open criminal cases and, now, departures from the country. More and more numerous, these no longer concern only the supporters of the opponent Alexeï Navalny. Bloggers, politicians, human rights defenders, rappers, journalists, lawyers, scientists… dozens of personalities have chosen exile for political reasons in recent months.
The identity of the last starter aroused unusual emotion at the start of the year. It is by a Facebook post on January 10 that Viktor Shenderovich, 63, star of the small screen and renowned comedian, announced that he was leaving his homeland for a destination as yet unknown. “Putin’s Russia showed me my place: near the toilets, in the national jails”, he wrote, denouncing twenty years of pressure, threats and police surveillance.
With his departure, a page in Russian history closes: in the minds of millions of Russians, the name of Viktor Chenderovich remains associated with that of “koukli”, an emblematic television program of the 1990s highlighting puppet scene with the effigy of Russian political figures. The satirical program did not survive long following the coming to power of Vladimir Putin, who appeared in it in “Bad little dwarf” : in 2001, the NTV channel had been closed by the authorities, and this program directly inspired by the “Guignols de l’Info” stopped in the process.
In the sights of “Putin’s cook”
Since then, he has become a prolific writer — author of some 30 plays, short stories, novels, and poetry collections — and a staunch commentator on the Russian political scene, especially for Moscow’s Echo Radio. He did not hide his support for the opposition to Vladimir Putin. In late December 2021, he was appointed by Russian justice “Foreign agent”, an infamous designation involving significant administrative constraints.
The author, used to the courts, explained that he was fleeing new legal proceedings, this time brought by the oligarch Yevgeny Prigojine, for defamation. “I always showed up for summons to court or for questioning. Partly out of curiosity, part out of trust in fate and in that belief acquired in childhood – in triumph, if not for good, at least for common sense. (…) This time I am abstaining, precisely in the name of common sense. “
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