Repression on a whim

Roskomnadzor has invented two extra citizenships for me.

I’m not joking. At the end of October I received documents in the case about cooperation with an “undesirable” organization. There are all sorts of stuff - screenshots from the Barents Observer website, accusations of “LGBT propaganda,” and other facts intended to thoroughly describe my rotten insides. But something else struck me.

Roskomnadzor of Karelia, at the request of the Ministry of Justice, made a description of my journalistic (strikethrough) destructive activity. The document is signed by the head of the agency, Roman Kosnov. And here’s how he begins:

“Chentemirov Georgii Rostislavovich, born in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, resides in the Kingdom of Norway. Holds citizenship of the Russian Federation, the Kyrgyz Republic, and the State of Israel. Publicist.”

Just to clarify: I do NOT have any citizenship other than Russian.

When I saw this, I couldn’t believe my eyes - literally. I had to re-read the paragraph several times before I made sure that the words on the paper weren’t a hallucination. Yes, that’s exactly what it says: holds citizenship of Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Israel. And then this claim is repeated several more times - in the documents by which, mind you, I am going to be tried.

Never mind that the place of birth is stated incorrectly; 40 years ago the capital of Kyrgyzstan was called Frunze, that’s how it’s written in the passport - but let’s assume Roskomnadzor is merely supporting the struggle against the colonial legacy of the Soviet Union. Further. I can - only partially! - understand why Roskomnadzor scribbled in Kyrgyzstan citizenship for me; they “thought” that since I was born there, I must have gotten a passport… probably… at some point… somehow…

But Israel? I have never been to that country even once, I have no close relatives with Israeli citizenship, I have absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever. How?!

Naturally, I immediately called the Karelian Roskomnadzor. The head who signed the certificate was not present. I had to speak to an ordinary employee, who promised to look into it. And… and… and they have no idea where I supposedly got two additional citizenships.

I assume this is a spontaneous expression of typical ancient anti-Semitism. You don’t like the Russian authorities? - you are not Russian. And if not Russian - then what? No need to think here. So get out to your Israel.

And here’s another story - probably even more absurd and certainly far more dramatic. Do you remember the crackdown on the “Revolt Center” in Syktyvkar? Security forces conducted searches in 12 regions of Russia, detained and interrogated people, declared a bunch of people as foreign agents, and opened a case against the founder of the cultural space, member of the board of the international “Memorial” Pavel Andreyev.

Andreyev was accused of state treason. But here’s the paradox: as “Ostorozhno, novosti” writes, the FSB confused this man with his namesake. Andreyev (the one from Syktyvkar) is being incriminated for “decolonial activities” in the interests of a Danish representative and for working in the organization “Platform of civil, anti-war, and humanitarian initiatives,” which cooperates with European authorities. But the “Platform” is run by another person, also named Pavel Andreyev - a former PR specialist from Ulyanovsk, who left for Germany after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

According to Pavel Andreyev (from Komi), the mistake in the criminal case was discovered right from the start. Many of those detained and interrogated in the “Revolt Center” case had nothing to do with it - such as Karelian journalist Valery Potashov. But the Russian state in principle does not admit its mistakes, and certainly will not do so after what are possibly the most large-scale operational-investigative actions of recent years.

Or here’s another case. My colleague Olesya Krivtsova, who escaped from house arrest at the age of 20, has been arrested in absentia and put on the wanted list. She is accused of justifying terrorism and discrediting the army (of course). But a clerk in the Investigative Committee decided not to be petty and added armed robbery to Olesya as well. The “victims” of Krivtsova were one Bogdanov and three people with the surname Mukha.

And another colleague of mine, Natalya Ermolina, had large-scale fraud using official position added to her wanted card by the police. How Ermolina, who in recent years had been involved in cultural and educational projects, could have possibly committed any fraud was completely unclear; the police admitted the mistake, but did not apologize.

To summarize. Negative selection yields its fruits, and even such a responsible matter as repression is ultimately entrusted to idiots. On one hand, that’s good: there is hope that the idiots will make the repressive machine less effective. On the other hand, the cold hands of the chekists, though not strongly connected to the brain, do not lose their grip. The searches and detentions in the “Revolt Center” case were hardly amusing to their participants. And for the singer Naoko, who was accused of “discrediting the army” for the fact that the song she performs is listened to by Ukrainians during Russian bombings, it is not funny either.