The Normalcy of Putin's Megalomania

"Glossy prosecutors and dressed-up jurors with brilliant smiles 'judge' boys ad girls who look like skeletons after concentration camp and torture."

"Such abuse of combatants is an official war crime that has to be properly assessed by the ICC [International Criminal Court]."

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to VolodymyrZelenskyy

Ukrainian soldiers who were taken prisoner during fighting sit inside a defendant's glass cage during a hearing at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov

The dedicated patriotic soldiers of the Azov battalion who fiercely defended the city of Mariupol from within the labyrinthian underground corridors of the Azovstal steel factory were taken prisoner by Russia when there was no option left but to concede defeat. Their imprisonment has not been remotely akin to conditions that can be found in most civilized countries of the world as evidenced by their grim appearance; the 22 prisoners looking ill-kempt, clothed in dirty prison rags, skeletal in appearance, obviously not being fed gracious meals featuring caviar and vodka.

 

The malnourished soldiers standing trial do so from behind a large glass enclosure in the courtroom. Of the 22 prisoners, eight are women who had worked for the Ukrainian battalion as cooks. They too must suffer the indignity of harsh imprisonment worthy of a Medieval dungeon where people sat on stone floors manacled and dehumanized. Their heads shaved, wearing filthy prison uniforms, they were paraded in typical Russian triumph in a court in Rostov, southern Russia, accused of terrorism, likely to be given life sentences.

Lawyers sit in front of the defendants' enclosure with members of Ukraine's Azov Regiment captured in Mariupol in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict

This is Vladimir Putin's Russia, without scruples, much less morals. Critics of his decisions and pronouncements are silenced by either involuntary 'suicide', or lengthy incarcerations on convenient charges of les majesty. Political opponents are either poisoned, shot in the back of the head by marksmen, or indefinitely imprisoned, new charges being laid constantly, their prison sentences lengthened accordingly until it becomes clear they are destined never to leave prison other than in a coffin.

"The worst thing that can happen to political prisoners is that we forget about them. We want to show we are with him, we're thinking about him and the Kremlin won't be able to make him disappear."

"He was brave enough to return [to Russia from trips abroad]."

"He could have stayed outside Russia after he survived the second poisoning, but he decided to fly back to Russia and to oppose Putin and his regime."

Quebec Senator Pierre Dalphond

The Parliament of Canada has voted to bestow honorary Canadian citizenship on imprisoned Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, with the Senate voting to recognize the Russian journalist and activist in the wake of a House of Commons motion. Kara-Murza was involved in a political party in Russia, charged with "spreading deliberately false information" about the invasion of Ukraine. Infamously, Vladimir Putin enacted a law making it illegal to refer to his 'special military operation' as a war.

Despite suffering from a serious medical condition, Vladimir Kara-Murza is serving a 25-year- prison sentence. He had gone to Canada to testify before Members of Parliament and Senators, aiding them in reforming sanctions for a tougher stance against the government of Vladimir Putin. His advocates describe Kara-Murza's having been poisoned by Russian state actors. The motion was passed with unanimous consent after tabling. 

"It is important to note that the decision is political in nature, is made by joint resolution of the Houses in Parliament, and falls outside the responsibility of the Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the [immigration] minister. As the decision is purely symbolic, no further statements or declarations will be made beyond the motion", noted IRCC spokesman Jeffrey MacDonald.

Canada's former attorney general, renowned international human rights activist Irving Cotler, argued that honourary citizenship status sends a message of support to all Russians detained for speaking out against the destructively murderous invasion of Ukraine. The Russian human-rights group OVD-Info stated that over 20,000 people in Russia who have spoken out against their country's invasion of its Ukrainian neighbour are also languishing in prison. Oleg Stepanov, Russia's ambassador in Ottawa, sneered the move gives parliamentarians "15 seconds of limelight", its only impact.

"For a person who has not committed any crimes, acquittal would be the only fair verdict."

"But I do not ask this court for anything. I know the verdict. I knew it a year ago when I saw people in black uniforms and black masks running after my car in the rearview mirror."

"Such is the price for speaking up in Russia today."

"Given the sophisticated type of poison, [two separate poisoning attacks that nearly took his life in 2015 and 2017], I think it's people who have been or are connected with the Russian special services." 

"The night, as you know is darkest just before the light."

Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian journalist-activist

Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza is escorted to a hearing in a court in Moscow, Feb. 8. He has been imprisoned in Moscow since April 2022 for speaking out against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  Associated Press