Russia to make dissent treason

posted at 10:33 am on December 18, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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For those who think America has hearkened back to Great Depression economic solutions, cheer up — it could be worse.  While Barack Obama seems to want to become the next FDR, his counterpart in Russia has taken a giant leap towards becoming the latest version of Uncle Joe Stalin.  Vladimir Putin and his puppet Dmitry Medvedev have pushed through a new definition of treason that will include any information given to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that Moscow doesn’t like, setting the stage for a new tyranny by the former KGB master:

Under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, people who fraternized with foreigners or criticized the Kremlin were “enemies of the people” and sent to the gulag. Now there’s new legislation backed by Vladimir Putin’s government that human rights activists say could throw Russia back to the days of the Great Terror.

The legislation, outspoken government critic and rights activist Lev Ponomaryov charged Wednesday, creates “a base for a totalitarian state.”

Government supporters and Kremlin-allied lawmakers said the bill — submitted to the Kremlin-friendly parliament last week — will tighten up current law. Supporters say prosecutors often have trouble gaining convictions because of ambiguities in the definition of state treason.

The bill would add non-governmental organizations based anywhere in the world that have an office in Russia to the list of banned recipients of state secrets. The government has repeatedly accused foreign spy agencies of using NGOs as a cover to foment dissent.

What’s an NGO?  Well, the Red Cross is an NGO.  Election observers work for NGOs.  Let’s say Russia holds an election and Russians give information to election observers that the government has corrupted the voting process.  That’s a ticket to the gulag for anyone caught doing it, and guess what?  They won’t even get a jury trial:

In a separate development Wednesday, Russia’s upper house of parliament passed legislation that would end jury trials for those facing charges of terrorism and treason. Instead, they would face a panel of judges.

A “separate development”?  Who is the Associated Press trying to kid?  Does reporter David Nowak really see no connection between the push to broaden the definition of treason to include talking with NGOs and the removal of the right to trial by jury for those accused?  Gee, how serendipitous of the Duma to pass that law just as Putin and Medvedev made treason a catchall to stop dissent!

At least David Nowak and the AP reported the story.  I scanned the World section feeds of the New York Times, LA Times, and the Washington Post, and they seem very disinterested in the return of the police state to Russia.  Thank goodness the LA Times managed to cover the story about sexually-harassed women in Egypt speaking out instead of this minor development in Moscow.

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