“What is the cost of freedom in Europe and lack of freedom in Russia and what is Russia betting on”

For a long time already Russian TV channels have been kicking around variations of the same topic. They claim that on the one hand Russia is successfully overcoming the economic sanctions imposed on Russia by various countries, and the Russian economy is showing growth in spite of it all. Yet on the other hand in the European countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia the economies are suffering, and because of this everything is going badly in those countries. At the same time, the Russian propaganda machine, in order to give their words some semblance of truth, is showcasing more and more former European politicians who share their views on this topic and confirm to some degree or another the version demanded by Russian propaganda.

I am sure that this topic is often discussed in European countries, but it seems to me that most of the opinions expressed in European countries is exactly the opposite of what is broadcast by Russian propaganda aimed at the domestic audience. 

For this reason, I have decided to join the ranks of those who have an opinion on this matter, one that they express publicly. Especially because the Russian propaganda-pushers are shamelessly misleading our fellow citizens and their predictions have been bothering me for a long time. 

It is worth pointing out the essential differences between my opinion on the topic from the opinions of the majority of others who have weighed in on this matter on both sides of the Russian border. First of all, since I am neither a politician nor a cog in the Russian propaganda machine, I don’t have any personal interest in saying that white is black or the reverse. My only desire is to share my opinion with as many citizens as possible (and with others too), with those who are being mercilessly misled by Russian propaganda. Secondly, I am not going to wade into the details of the laws of economics and the like, since they would be incomprehensible to a broad sector of readers. And thirdly, in my view the most important point, my opinion has emerged from “reading between the lines” in the materials published by Russian propaganda, and from what information has seeped, drop by drop, through the walls of Russian dungeons. In today’s Russia droves of political prisoners are being locked up in dungeons. They are anyone who has opinions that differ from that of the Kremlin and who express their opinions in public, or those who try too hard to defend freedom of speech, who describe the unlawful actions of bureaucrats and policemen and the like. The list of such people in Russia today is unfortunately very long, and I am among them. In other words, my opinion is based on information extracted from the enormous noisy information stream outside the prison walls that in today’s world pours like a mighty river over all of us 24/7. Moreover, despite the fact that this topic concerns the economy, just the same it repeatedly shows me that everything that is happening in Ukraine in connection with the military conflict is actually a confrontation and struggle between democracy and liberalism on the one hand and autocracy and authoritarianism on the other hand. It is because authoritarianism has crossed the border from Russia toward the west that various sanctions have been imposed, and I will discuss their impact on the economy of Russia and to some extent the economies of western countries.

The basic message of the pro-Kremlin propaganda-pushers, along with Russian politicians whose pronouncements are broadcast by the Russian propaganda machine boils down to this: the countries of the collective West that have imposed and joined in on the sanctions against Russia are suffering economically. With these sanctions they are “shooting themselves in the foot” (the favourite metaphor of the talking heads). And the result for the citizens of these countries will be perpetual increases in prices, tariffs, and the like and this will bring about a decrease in the growth of the GDP as measured in terms of individual purchasing power. Meanwhile, whenever anything connected to the social and political arena happens in these countries, be they elections at any level, demonstrations, public actions, protests, or rallies, if there is any expression of dissatisfaction, then when this is reported in Russian television, they obligatorily conclude that the reason for this is the economic crisis brought about by “shooting themselves in the foot”. In other words, the imposition of sanctions on Russia is often cited in those cases when as the result of the above-mentioned social and political events or other political processes there is some change in the staffing of the government offices or parliaments or in the upper ranks of the leadership of these countries.

As concerns the situation in the Russian economy, these same speakers, as a rule, claim that the domestic economy is coping with all these challenges and in spite of it all, it is showing modest but stable growth.

I don’t think that there is anyone who doubts that both the European and Russian economies are facing certain difficulties caused by the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia and that these difficulties are impacting the standard of living of the citizens of these countries. However, the status of these difficulties is radically different. This is the most important point to be made in this discussion, but Russian propaganda is trying to “paint over” that which is white to make it look black in the eyes of Russian citizens, as well as citizens of other states that have been affected by these economic processes.

There is no question that over the past few years the cost of living in European countries has started going up a bit faster than in the years preceding the military conflict in Ukraine. Among the reasons for this are the various sanctions against Russia, including the refusal to buy from “cheap” Russian energy suppliers. But after all, during this same time period the cost of living has gone up all over the world, also in Russia, where these energy suppliers are “free” for the domestic market and they don’t have to spend government funds to import them. The cost of living is definitely going up, and Russian media headlines regularly announce that the federal prosecutor’s office and the Federal Anti-monopoly Agency are investigating the prices of various goods. The most recent report was about an investigation into the rising price of gasoline that is produced from oil that is not imported, but “free” for the Russian treasury. 

But the rise in the cost of living in European countries is a rather modest burden placed on the shoulders of their citizens. This “price” of defending the democratic values, rights, and freedoms that thrive in those countries is actually small in comparison with the damage that could result if the Russian authoritarian establishment were to spread out over Europe.

When the Russian propaganda machine displays for its domestic audience the above-mentioned social and political processes underway in European countries, for example protests, rallies, marches, and elections and their results etc., they always try to claim that these are motivated by economic troubles that have allegedly overwhelmed Europe. Perhaps they do not understand that in so doing they are confirming the healthy state of democracy in these countries. For example, in the past few years there have been many elections or changes of leaders and political figures in key posts in various European countries. Every time this happens, if Russian propaganda can find the flimsiest reason (or even if there is no reason at all), they put in their “two cents” about how economic problems have caused or contributed to these processes. But in actual fact, they are just showing how the basic democratic principles of transfer of power work in these countries, a process that people have long since forgotten about in Russia. Furthermore, the outcome of the democratic elections in these countries is that different political entities have come to power, not just the parties of the previous government and its leaders. These new leaders include representatives of the opposition to the government that was in power before the elections. This is just a confirmation and demonstration of democratic principles for the election of a government by its people, something that no one can remember anymore Russia, where any real opposition candidates and political parties are eliminated from the political arena when they are being established or registered. And as concerns the many mass events at which the citizens of European countries express their opinions, the will of the people, and draw the attention of their governments to various problems, then again, these just confirm and demonstrate how democratic principles and freedoms work. These are the right to conduct peaceful meetings, rallies, and marches, and freedom of speech and the right to public expression of one’s opinion. People in Russia have forgotten about such things since the rallies on Bolshaya Square [2011-2013] – they have been eradicating all such events and at the present time they are entirely banned. Anyone who violates this ban gets sent “far away and for good” (although of course this ban does not apply to any events that are organized by the authorities and their pro-kremlin puppets). Moreover, in the majority of cases Russian propaganda ignores the fact that as a result of the above-mentioned mass events that citizens participate in, various changes are set in motion because the authorities and governments of these countries actually listen to their voters (of course, there are objectively also other examples, when there is unrest and people are dispersed, but that is an exception to the rule). Again, this is a confirmation and demonstration of how basic democratic principles function such that the people are the source of power, it is the people who endow a legally elected government with authority, and the government, in its turn, takes into consideration the opinions of its voters. But in Russia, if it was hypothetically possible to suggest carrying out such an event, then they wouldn’t take into consideration your opinion, but instead note your personal identity in order to put you in jail. 

Of course I am presenting only the most essential points, that which is visible from here, and everything else has been deliberately cut out. The reality is much more complicated.

In my view, I repeat, the economic difficulties that have befallen the peoples of Europe are just a very small price to pay in order to defend democracy in Europe and preserve the existing state of affairs as described above. 

As concerns the economic difficulties in connection with overcoming the sanctions imposed against Russia and the economic growth referred to at the beginning of this essay, we need to take up the issue of the “price” of this success and growth.

In actual fact the basic means of overcoming the economic difficulties caused by the sanctions in Russia has boiled down to “plugging” all the holes in the economy with state and budget funds and establishing pro-government control in ever larger sectors of the economy by transferring enterprises to direct or covert state control.

But what is the “price” of these government funds that are being poured into the Russian economy in the name of rescuing it, and by what means are these funds being collected and thus influencing the indicators of economic development?

In comparing the situation that has arisen in the countries of the collective West with the reality of the Russian situation, I have thus far cited essential differences indicating the deprivations of Russian society. In what follows I will not repeat myself, but bear in mind that these factors also contribute to the “price” that the Russian people are paying.

The first thing that the Russian authorities did in response to the sanctions against Russia was that the Russian Federation withdrew from the Council of Europe and denounced the European Convention on Human Rights of 1959. As a result of this action Russians were in one fell swoop deprived of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention and they also lost the only effective means to defend those rights, namely the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). This loss suffered by Russians is also part of the “price” that we have to pay, but there are many other components to this process that deserve our attention. And when the state deprived the Russian people of their rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention that Russia had up until then been a party to for more than 20 years, and they were deprived of the only means of defending them through the ECHR, the state saved an enormous quantity of funds that it, as a participant in the Council of Europe, was supposed to pay in membership fees that go from members of the Convention to support the ECHR. Furthermore, following the denunciation of the Convention, a number of federal laws were passed that imposed a moratorium on carrying out the decisions of the ECHR. The state pocketed huge sums of money that were allocated as compensation for damages suffered by its citizens due to the violation of their rights that were awarded by the ECHR. We must bear in mind that this concerns not just the compensation that would have been awarded for state violation of citizens’ rights after Russia decided to withdraw from the Council of Europe, but also the compensation that was awarded by the ECHR for violations of citizens’ rights that took place long before these events because the reviewing of cases in the ECHR takes a very long time. In fact, we have a situation where citizens’ rights were being violated for years and then for some years citizens participated in the process of having their complaints reviewed by the ECHR and hoped for fair decisions but have now been deprived of the possibility of receiving compensation from the state. Together these funds – Russia’s membership fees that they have saved as well as the compensation that was not paid out to citizens both for past violations and for future violations after the time when Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe – constitute enormous annual sums for the state coffers. Furthermore, in addition to all this “saving”, denunciation of the European Convention on Human Rights and withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the ECHR have made it possible to introduce criminal liability for actions that do not meet the requirements of legal clarity. An example is “discrediting the deployment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation…”. Under the legal system that existed until March 2022, if a guilty verdict was rendered for this crime and a complaint was filed with the ECHR, then in every case it would have been judged to be a violation of the right to a fair trial. Thus “the way was paved” by those who made the relevant decisions: measures were taken both to save money that would have been awarded for these violations of rights to those people who were to be sentenced by Russian courts, and to facilitate the introduction of criminal liability for acts that lack a clear legal definition, as well as the conviction of citizens in Russian courts for these so-called crimes. At this point it has been over three years that the Russian treasury has been plugging holes in the economy with the money that they have collected by depriving Russian citizens of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention and as a result also depriving them of the mechanism for defending these rights and freedoms. 

The next thing that was done in order to top up state coffers with money that then could be used to prop up the economy and ensure its “growth” was that a repressive machine was let loose at full force to pump money out of the Russian people. It would be impossible in this publication to list all the laws and means of confiscating citizens’ property, along with the regulations for non-compliance for which the fines have been increased by hundreds of percent. For that I would need to write a separate long text. Altogether there have appeared entire series of laws, acts, clauses and the like that have introduced new fines for all conceivable kinds of “offences”, as well as all kinds of restrictions on citizens’ property rights. Basically there have been significant changes and additions to the series of laws that concern the so-called foreign agent laws and the laws about undesirable organizations. Entire series of laws have been invented aimed at people who have their own opinions about this or that issue that don’t correspond to the official opinions of the Russian authorities and who wish to express these opinions and bring them to the attention of the public. All these fines, which have materialized out of thin air thanks to the state of affairs in the Russian justice system and are collected by means of repressive measures, constitute a significant portion of the revenue going into the Russian treasury. Lately we hear more and more often about the seizure, confiscation, and transfer of property and real estate that are being pumped out of citizens and converted into state revenue. When they first declared “open season” on citizens’ property, collection was taking place primarily by means of fines, but now they are purposefully introducing more and more sanctions that allow them to confiscate vehicles and real estate. The websites of of the State Traffic Inspectorate and the Federal Bailiff Service display vehicles being sent to the “Special Military Operation” or to be sold at auction. “Open season” on real estate takes the form of establishing who is the owner of multiple units (sometimes tens or even hundreds of units) and then preparing a plan to confiscate the property, for example, by initiating a criminal case or by applying judicial procedures to seize the property. These procedures amount to a hostile takeover in that there is no justice involved, and court authorities are invoked only in order to observe formal rules of a procedure in which the owner of the real estate is obviously on the losing side and can’t object to the hostile takeover of their property.

In addition, at the legislative level they have now invented a whole series of schemes that is already being rather widely applied in practice to confiscate the entire property of whole families, taking property from relatives and friends of those who need to be “trimmed down”, citizens’ associations and the like.

I don’t need to go into details about how the state coffers have been filled up by increasing the cost of various duties, tariffs, fees, taxes and the like since it is so obvious. The consequences of this have been felt by every inhabitant of Russia, especially those citizens whose salaries and other income have hardly changed during this period while there has been a wild level of inflation and increase in tariffs, duties, fees and the like, and such citizens are the overwhelming majority in Russia. The increase by hundreds of percent in the cost of state-imposed fees for bringing a case to court has made them insurmountable, thus depriving many citizens of the opportunity to bring a case to court. This is the “price” that citizens are paying in order to rescue the Russian economy, while the standard of living of those who claim that they are saving the economy has not changed at all, unlike that of the average Russian citizen.

Of course we cannot ignore the fact that a wave of so-called nationalization and deprivatization of various major business enterprises has rolled over the whole of Russia. This wave, in fact, takes the form of “squeezing out” whatever business or property the current government sets its eyes on and redistribution of control over resources among the groups in power. As we have all seen, this nationalization and deprivatization has affected a huge inventory of real estate units and major business enterprises in a broad range of sectors, ranging from enterprises for the extraction and processing of petroleum and other useful minerals to the country’s leading enterprises in the food industry. In fact, in the end, they have established state control over all these enterprises, in some cases directly and in other cases covertly. And this control has not only given them access to the profits of these enterprises, but also allowed them to regulate their activities, making it possible to use their production capacity while ignoring the laws of the market economy and other considerations that would ensure that needed goods be provided at the required price. And as usual, following “the best traditions” of today’s Russia, where the “Chekists” [state security agents] are in power, the processes of nationalization and deprivatization have in many cases been accompanied by criminal prosecution of the ex-owners and top management of those enterprises. So here we have it, the way in which economic difficulties have been overcome and the price being paid to secure the growth of economic indicators. Of course, when nearly all major business enterprises not previously under control by the government’s puppets have been put under full control of the state, then it is possible to create the appearance of economic growth in the short term.

It goes without saying that the list above falls far short of presenting all the means and methods used by the Russian authorities in order to fill up their treasury so that they can use these funds to “save” the economy. I would rather claim that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I have merely laid out the most obvious points, things that every Russian citizen is aware of and has felt the consequences of and that most vividly demonstrates what kinds of means and methods the Russian authorities are using to pump out everything they possibly can from the Russian people. 

The most remarkable thing that I wanted to point out in this connection is the fact that recently various speakers, commentators, and the like who have appeared in Russian television, are increasingly, with their usual cynicism, speaking openly about how they expect the peoples of the European countries to react to various social problems that have arisen in those countries against the background of economic difficulties. In other words, we have arrived at a situation where the authoritarian regime in Russian and those who serve it, after strangling the fledgling buds of democracy and eradicating liberal rights and freedoms, are betting that the peoples of Europe, in order to attain their rights and freedoms, will pressure their governments to move in the direction of authoritarianism. We hear from their mouths that in this struggle and confrontation of autocracy with democracy, liberal democratic values, principles, and freedoms will play into the hands of the autocrats since they are assuming that the governments of these countries will simply be forced to make compromises. They will buckle under the reaction of society to the problems that are arising in these countries, motivated in part by the confrontation with authoritarianism that is creeping out from Russia.

Overall, in my view, these fundamentally different approaches used by the governments of European countries and the government of the Russian state once again very vividly illustrate and demonstrate the difference between the democracy which has solidly taken root in European countries, and the authoritarianism which is strangling Russia. The examples cited above clearly show what is happening in the countries where democracy is thriving, and what is happening in a country where an authoritarian government, which poses as legally elected in accordance with democratic procedures, has in actual fact simply usurped power. And, in turn, once again this confirms the fact that all of the events surrounding the situation in Ukraine, are primarily grounded in a confrontation between democracy and autocracy, between liberalism and authoritarianism, and all that proceeds from this. 

Thus if we ask what kind of a world we want to live in and what kind of a world our descendants will live in, the answer depends on each and every one of us.