Russia faces a spring of discontent – and Putin is responding the only way he knows how

Several Russian cities have experienced internet shutdowns, which are beginning to irritate ordinary citizens. Putin says the interruptions were “related to operational work to prevent terrorist attacks”

Four years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia is facing a wave of discontent.

Internet shutdowns in Russian cities have angered ordinary citizens, and a public backlash against Russian President Vladimir Putin is becoming evident.

Russia has overcome the economic hardships of the war, while its security services keep protests under control. And the conflict in the Middle East gave an unexpected boost to the Russian war effort through rising oil prices.

However, the Russian state’s repressive apparatus appears to be taking action. In recent weeks, law enforcement authorities have launched a new round of high-profile arrests and police raids. And, in parallel, the Russian government has resurrected the ghosts of the Soviet past.

The most recent example came on Tuesday, when agents from Russia’s Investigative Committee raided the offices of one of the country’s largest publishing houses and detained employees, following a year-long criminal investigation into what authorities allege was a case of “LGBTQ+ propaganda.”

Publisher Eksmo owns an imprint called Popcorn Books, which publishes young adult fiction.

One of her titles seems to have attracted particular attention: “Summer in a Pioneer Tie,” a 2021 bestseller that tells the story of a queer romance between two young people at a Soviet summer camp.

Authorities arrested several people linked to the publisher last year; the Popcorn Books imprint closed in January.

Putin’s Russia has long been hostile to what it considers dangerous Western ideas, with the Kremlin leader positioning himself as a defender of traditional values.

In 2023, the Russian Supreme Court declared what Russian authorities call the “international LGBTQ movement” an extremist organization, imposing potentially serious criminal penalties for LGBTQ activism – or, apparently, in the case of Eksmo, for the act of publishing.

Russian state news agency TASS reported that Eksmo’s top executives were released on bail after interrogation. But the publishing sector is not the only place where space for free expression is shrinking in Russia.

Earlier this month, police searched the newsroom of Novaya Gazeta, an independent newspaper whose co-founder won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti, citing the Interior Ministry, reported that journalist Oleg Roldugin was detained for questioning as part of criminal proceedings over the alleged misuse of personal data. Roldugin denies the accusations.

The intimidating effect of the case is evident.

The newspaper Novaya Gazeta was forced to close its print edition after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but continues to publish online; the police operation puts further pressure on what remains of the free press in Russia.

Sharing independent news in Russia is already difficult. The government bans popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and is pushing to impose a state-controlled messaging app called MAX as the default portal for digital services. And the operation against Novaya Gazeta took place on the same day that the Russian Supreme Court classified Memorial, a renowned human rights organization, as “extremist”.

In a statement, UN human rights officer Volker Türk said the classification “effectively criminalizes critical human rights work” in Russia.

While the attack on the press is ongoing, authorities are also resurrecting old symbols of political repression. Just days ago, Russia’s FSB Academy, where Putin trained to be a KGB agent, was renamed in honor of Feliks Dzherzinsky, the feared founder of the Soviet secret police.

The toppling of the statue of Dzherzinsky in front of the KGB headquarters in 1991 was one of the symbolic acts that marked the end of the Soviet Union. But authorities in Russia appear determined to embrace the country’s dark, totalitarian past.

On Thursday, Reuters reported that the embassies of Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia issued a protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry following the dismantling of a memorial complex in the Siberian city of Tomsk dedicated to the victims of the Soviet secret police. And earlier this month, Russia sparked outrage by installing an exhibit that some analysts said desecrated the Katyn Memorial, the site of the 1940 mass execution of Polish prisoners of war by the Soviets.

But if the Russian government is resurrecting the ghosts of the Soviet past – and making the lives of ordinary Russians much more inconvenient – ​​Putin himself is demonstrating public indifference.

On Thursday, Putin broke his silence on the digital blackouts that hit the country’s capital in early March.

“I can’t help but mention what people are also facing in big cities – it’s rare, but unfortunately it happens,” he declared. “I’m referring to certain internet problems and outages in large metropolitan areas.”

Putin indicated that the internet outages – which affected e-commerce and made many electronic applications and services inaccessible – were “related to operational work to prevent terrorist attacks.” At the same time, the Russian president also appeared to suggest that the public’s need for access to information was limited.

“Broadly releasing information to the public in advance can be detrimental to operational development, because criminals, after all, hear and see everything,” he said. “And, of course, if the information reaches them, they will adjust their behavior and their criminal plans.”

In other words, life in wartime means tolerating some inconveniences. And the Russian security services’ intensifying and deepening repression of civilian life shows little sign of abating.