Acts of political revenge

Leonid Gozman reacts to his 8½-year prison sentence for two social media posts about the Bucha massacre

Mother Russia decided to give me a birthday present — two days early — just so I wouldn’t think she had forgotten about me. I am now officially a criminal, having been sentenced to 3,106 days, or eight-and-a-half years, in prison for slander, and other crimes.

Leonid Gozman

Russian opposition politician

First I was arrested in absentia, then, in May 2023, I was put on Russia’s wanted list, and finally, in February 2024, on an international wanted list. I didn’t go into hiding. In fact, I told the authorities where I was and how they could get in touch.

The criminal charge itself turned out to be related to something I posted online on 3 April 2022. “Bucha has made nuclear war more likely. There is no way around a war crimes tribunal now.” In Russian, that was 10 words, 62 letters.

I posted something else too, also very short. It turns out I was sentenced to 155 days for each word — or 25 days for each letter — in those two posts. Truly, we are a literary nation! Where else do words hold such value? I am reminded of Soviet bard Osip Mandelstam, who, shortly before his arrest, said nowhere was poetry as respected as in the Soviet Union, as only there did poets get shot.

I can’t understand why investigators were so sloppy, though, and chose such innocuous posts. I wrote every day back then, very critically, and didn’t watch my words. In early March that year, I staged a one-man protest, carrying a placard saying: “No to war. Putin must resign!” There’s still a photograph on my Facebook and Twitter accounts. The fact that I was going to be prosecuted was decided in advance, as were the charges and the sentence. But not by the courts, you understand. No, by those who give orders to the court. The Prosecutor’s Office just chose two posts at random. They could have taken any number of others.

If I was in Russia, I would be getting out of prison just in time for New Year 2033, at the grand old age of 82 and a half. But I wouldn’t get out. Not that I’m complaining about my health, you understand. But at my age, you wouldn’t last that long in prison. It’s a life sentence. I mean, it was a serious crime. I was convicted for “saying … the special military operation had led to a large number of civilian casualties in Ukraine”. Which is slander, there’s no denying it! I’m lucky I didn’t get a longer sentence.

And maybe I still will. The odd thing for enemies of the system is that no verdict or decision is ever final. Let’s say you’ve been given a fine. You pay the fine, so now you’re quits. Or you’ve served your time and you’re released. So now you’re free, right? Wrong. They can find anything you’ve written — statutes of limitations don’t apply, since everything published online, even by them, in your name, is deemed an ongoing crime — and start the entire process all over again.

OK, so you can say: “Screw you! You won’t catch me. Europe won’t hand me over. You can shove your sentences.” But there are two caveats with that.

First, I still have friends and other people I’m close to in Russia. It is too late for most of them to emigrate and start a new life. I wouldn’t have either, given the choice. So, there they are in Russia, and I don’t know if it’s safe for me to call them. How can I be sure that in a couple of months’ time, someone I spoke to on the phone won’t be charged with espionage or treason? How many times have I chosen not to call or write to people I used to be in touch with all the time?

Second, and I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to come to terms with this new reality, to finally accept this whole nightmare. I understand it all rationally, but I can’t accept it at the emotional level. I can’t accept the war, the daily bombing of Ukraine — what’s Ukraine ever done to you? — the blatant tyranny.

The state, in whose name these sentences are handed down, is simply laughing in our face. “We’ll do whatever we want!” And it does.

But Russia belongs to its people! It is the country of Sakharov, Pushkin, Gagarin. The country that defeated Hitler. So we have no choice but to keep on doing what we’re doing, to keep on doing what they’re prosecuting us for.

The following is Leonid Gozman’s closing statement to the court, which was read out in his absence by his lawyer.

LEONID GOZMAN’S CLOSING STATEMENT
Your Honour,

You understand all too well that neither I, nor anyone else tried or convicted on similar charges, is guilty of what we are accused of. Our trials have nothing to do with law. They are acts of political revenge.

So rather than try to convince you of the obvious — my innocence — let me talk about the real reason people like me are put on trial.

You condemn us in the name of the Russian Federation, in the name of the state. But the state, or rather, the group of people who have seized control of it, who cling on to power through lies and crime, is itself the main enemy of Russia and its people.

These people, calling themselves the state, have unleashed a senseless war and are personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. They suppress freedom. They set the country back on a path towards the Middle Ages and condemn it to isolation. They threaten humanity’s very future with nuclear war.

They destroy everything that there was to be proud of. They betray everything that made Russia great. They set Russian against Russian. They breed cynicism and dishonesty. They promote the most pitiful and cowardly. Those who possess both a conscience and intelligence are declared enemies of the people, imprisoned or forced to leave their homeland.

They behave like occupiers, for whom nothing beyond their own well-being and power is important.

Our guilt lies in our understanding and discussion of these facts.

We are not passive victims. We consciously oppose this criminal regime. Our crime is that we tell the truth in a country where lies are king. We resist violence and lawlessness not with barricades or conspiracies, but with words. The state understands that the truth is on our side so goes after us the only way it can. But we knew what we were getting into.

This regime is doomed. The only question is how long this darkness will last and how many more people have to pay for the opportunism, immorality and irresponsibility of the ruling elite with their lives?

We have chosen to fight the regime because we refuse to accept lawlessness, obscurantism and cruelty in our own country. We have chosen to fight because we believe in the people, and believe that normality will return to Russia sooner rather than later. We have chosen to fight at the behest of our consciences.

We will win. Perhaps not each and every one of us, but as a group, we will win.

Russia will be free!

Views expressed in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the position of Novaya Gazeta Europe.