Leaving Russia on March 3, 2022, immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, Kirill Rogov, a political scientist renowned in Russia, found refuge in Vienna, Austria, where he works as an associate researcher at the Institute for Human Sciences, created originally, in 1982, as a meeting place between dissident thinkers from Eastern Europe and experts from the West. He developed a platform there, Re: Russia, intended to inform about the situation in his country, with the help of Russian specialists, often exiled.
Has the situation changed much in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine?
Yes, a lot, especially on the diet side. Even though it had started in the 2010s, the repression is getting heavier day by day. Between 2018 and 2021, there were, for political reasons, around 100 arrests per year, then 200. Apart from two categories particularly targeted, among Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses, the sentences imposed varied around two or three years’ imprisonment. Today, the rate has increased to 300 or 400 criminal cases, due in particular to the introduction of new articles [sur la discréditation de l’armée] and five, six, or eight years of imprisonment have become commonplace. This induces profound changes at all levels.
What do you mean ?
This massive repression changes everything, the social atmosphere, relations with the outside world, careers. Such a transformation could not have taken place without the war. Before, we could live in parallel with public life, today it is impossible. We must also take into account another very important event, the departure of half a million Russians, or more, 700,000. This does not only concern the labor market. They represent a significant part of the country’s human capital, they are the most educated people, the most active in society, and the most present in the public sphere. Before the threat appeared, I made the decision myself to leave because to write and express yourself, you have to feel free. For this same reason, many of my relatives, my circle of friends, especially in Moscow, have also left the country, first and foremost those under 50.
Putin has also changed. Admittedly, he is still marked by the ideology of the KGB and his appetite for small dark affairs, but he was pragmatic. He is no longer. It is at the extremes. The power structure remains apparently the same, but it has evolved. [Sergueï] Chemezov [ex-officier du KGB en poste à Dresde en même temps que Vladimir Poutine dans les années 1980]at the head of Rostec [conglomérat d’Etat d’entreprises, notamment dans le secteur militaro-industriel], became a key figure; [Denis] Manturov [ministre de l’industrie et du commerce promu vice-premier ministre en 2022] Also.
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