…”..They smashed the anarchists and anti-fascists, capable of direct action and forceful protest. They smashed the “peaceful, unarmed” opposition. Who’s next?”…’Russia now ruled by disempowerment and rightlessness’..
Lev Schlosberg Facebook January 18, 2021
Moscow State University graduate student Azat Miftakhov has been sentenced by the Golovinsky District Court in Moscow to six years in prison in the case of [attempted] arson at a United Russia party field office in the Khovrino [district of Moscow].
He was convicted based on testimony given by two secret witnesses, including one who died a year ago. The real arsonists, who pleaded guilty and testified that Miftakhov was innocent, were sentenced only to probation of two and four years respectively.
Miftakhov is a political activist and scholar. [In rendering its verdict,] the court just copied the indictment filed by the prosecutors, who had requested exactly six years in prison for Miftakhov.
2021 has begun with trials attesting to the final destruction of any credibility in the Russian courts. This is the real “constitutional reform.” The destruction of the courts as an independent authority eliminates the possibility of protecting human rights and freedoms.
A state dominated by disempowerment and rightlessness has been molded. And this will eventuate its complete political collapse.
