December 10, 2022

The State is the Real Enemy of the People


The State is the Real Enemy of the People
Ilya Yashin at demonstration in 2019. Alexei Mironov

Last spring, antiwar opposition politician Ilya Yashin, 39, posted a YouTube video about potential Russian war crimes in Bucha, near Kiev, crimes that were already being documented by Western journalists and Ukrainian officials.

He was arrested two months later, in June, charged with "discrediting the Russian armed forces," but his channel on Youtube has continued to publish videos debunking Kremlin lies.

Yesterday, on December 9, he was convicted on the charges against him and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Yet he was defiant and upbeat in his final statement, saying that "the verdict's authors optimistically evaluate Putin's future, too optimistically in my view."

Further, Yashin said:

“The trial was supposed to serve as the denunciation of ‘an enemy of the people,’ i.e. me, but it turned into an antiwar tribunal, and, in response, we only heard the prosecutor’s incoherent Cold War slogans... I can only repeat what was said on the day of my arrest: I am not afraid, and you should not be afraid. Changes are coming.

"My mission is to tell the truth. I spoke it in city squares, in television studios, in parliamentary stands. I will not give up on the truth even behind bars. After all, to quote the classics, “a lie is a religion for slaves, and only truth can be the god of a free man.”

Yashin rose to prominence during the mass protests following Vladimir Putin's re-election in 2011 and 2012. He went on to lead the People’s Freedom Party, known as PARNAS, and was elected as a municipal official in Moscow.

Yashin is a close friend of Alexei Navalny, also an imprisoned dissident, whose lawyers released a statement after the verdict was handed down:

“I have known Ilya Yashin since he was 18 years old, and he is probably the first friend I made in politics. Another shameless and lawless Putin verdict will not silence Ilya and should not intimidate the honest people of Russia. This is another reason we must fight and I have no doubt that we will win in the end.”

For his part, President Putin, when quizzed at a news conference on the day the verdict was handed down if he thought giving Yashin “eight years for words is too brutal,” replied, “Who is he? Interfering in the work of the country is unacceptable and I consider it inappropriate to question the decision of the court.”

The full text of Yashin's final remarks machine-translated by Google, can be found here.

 
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955