The governor singled out for saying that Russia "did not need the invasion of Ukraine"
Who. The governor of the autonomous district of Janty-Mansiisk, Natalia Komarova. He is 67 years old and has been in office since 2010.. That. She has been denounced by activists for saying publicly that Russia “did not need” the invasion of Ukraine.. Because. Complaints and denunciations for saying or doing things that apparently go against the official war line have not stopped growing since the start of the war.
The governor of the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous Okrug, Natalia Komarova, is not exactly an oppositionist, but even so she has gotten into trouble. During a meeting with voters he said that “we did not need” the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He was responding to a question about a topic that is not taboo: how poorly equipped the troops at the front were.. Fast and furious, local activist Yury Ryabtsev filed a petition asking the Ministry of Interior to launch a criminal investigation into Komarova.
The Russian regime requires total loyalty to what it insists on calling a “special military operation” in Ukraine, an invasion that is in its 20th month.. Russian authorities have opened thousands of lawsuits for discrediting the Russian military since lawmakers banned criticism of the war by law days after Moscow's troops entered Ukraine in February 2022.. But so far Komarova has not received any official complaint.
Her office explained Monday that Komarova's words were taken out of context and that she supports Russian troops.. He claims that he meant that “Russia was not prepared for a war with the West and was not interested in a conflict with Ukraine.”
The governor knows that she cannot play with fire. Repeat offenders of discrediting the military risk being imprisoned for up to seven years, while those convicted of “spreading false information” face up to 15 years in prison.. Just in case, Komarova has insisted on the most victimist version of the invasion: “An economic and sanctions war was declared against us, and the Kiev regime is carrying out a physical extermination.”
The Russian war chorus currently functions as the country's morality police: pointing and shaming. Ryabtsev has uploaded the ink on his social networks, hoping to provoke support: “The enemies who nest in the fifth column of the special military operation are waiting for their punishment,” he said, according to the Sibir.Realii media.
Political talk shows on television have been full for months of warmongers arguing among themselves about whether Russia is killing Ukrainians effectively or whether the escalation against the West should be much greater.. From time to time one of the guests takes his criticism too far, questioning the invasion itself, and when reprimanded by the others he makes a parenthesis showing on air his faith in the attack on Ukraine.
Complaints about anti-war statements – or that could simply be interpreted that way – have become very common. Pointing is a way of not being singled out, displaying patriotic concerns and political vigilance to maintain a dominant position in public discussion.
With calculations by anthropologist Alexandra Arjipova, some 5,500 Russians have been prosecuted for discrediting the army since Russia launched its troops to try to take kyiv and depose the Government.. According to sociologist Andrei Kolesnikov, this desire to write denunciations can also be explained by the atmosphere of fear that has taken over all of Russia: “It is an invented morality,” he told The Moscow Times.