Vladimir Putin wanted to reassure Russians on Monday: In his opinion, the methods of the USSR will remain in the history books. In fact, the Russian president has reiterated that “new massive repressions” in Russia like in the Soviet era are “unacceptable,” although the Kremlin still suppresses any criticism of the war in Ukraine.
“The most important thing is that something like this doesn’t happen again.”
Since the Russian army’s offensive at the end of February 2022, the judiciary has harshly punished citizens who oppose the conflict in word and deed. Thousands of Russians have been sentenced to fines or long prison sentences for this reason.
“When we talk about victims of political repression, we are talking about very different people. There are those who were actually opponents of the Soviet system, and those who supported it and were behind bars for various domestic political reasons,” Vladimir Putin said. “There were people there completely by chance. “All this is important, but for us the most important thing is that all this is not repeated in the history of our country, because it has caused enormous and serious damage to our people and our state,” he continued, quoted by the Interfax agency.
The Kremlin is ambivalent towards the USSR and Stalin
“Such a lack of rights to decide people’s fate is unacceptable if we want our country to have a future,” added the Russian president, speaking during a meeting of the Human Rights Council, a Kremlin-affiliated advisory body.
Moscow does not deny the Soviet repressions, but rather minimizes them and presents them as a tragedy for which there is no real culprit. At the same time, the Kremlin loudly glorifies the power of the USSR and Stalin, especially since the attack on Ukraine, which it portrays as “denazification,” in keeping with the legacy of World War II.