The prosecution of Udaltsov indicates that the country is rapidly returning to a practice well known since Soviet times - fabricating cases based on denunciations. What should ordinary citizens do in this situation?

I once read the book “Kangaroo” by Yuz Aleshkovsky, which was banned in the USSR in those years. The point there was that a criminal case was opened against a certain citizen for the rape of a kangaroo in the Moscow Zoo on the night, say, from November 30, 1937 to April 15, 1938. Like complete absurdity, phantasmagoria, etc. But the citizen, as was expected in those harsh times, was convicted. I perceived this whole story as it should be - grotesque, postmodernism, an evil satire on the times of Stalinist repressions.

Some 20-odd years have passed and, believe it or not, I live in a country where such Absurdistan is becoming the norm. As lawyer Henry Resnik said, cases are not even fabricated, they are invented. It is difficult to believe that Sergei Udaltsov, who understands that he is in the opposition, and therefore he is being listened to and most likely being followed, began to discuss the topics of a coup d’etat and almost the dismemberment of Russia with unfamiliar Georgian people. It’s hard to believe in many things, but, however, it’s a blunder and from this “hard to believe” criminal cases are formed, for which someone will receive very real sentences. By the way, this is not the first such case. Citizens, with the indifference characteristic of Russian people, swallowed the second Khodorkovsky-Lebedev case, and if anyone has forgotten, it was about the fact that the guys stole oil from themselves on a scale that would make one’s head spin. In general, if it is poured into tanks, the composition will encircle the Earth several times along the equator. Absurd? Quite, but no one became particularly indignant about this, and the peculiarly understood political expediency was attributed to the showdown between Putin and Khodorkovsky.

And now again. The progressive public raises its hands and is eager to defend the class alien Udaltsov. Everyone seems to understand that if cases are made up, then we are one step away from fabricating them through denunciations. Why is Russian history so rich? Frighteningly rich, I'd say.

Once upon a time, Putin said that the relationship between government and the press (here we can easily replace “press” with “society”) is similar to the relationship between a man and a woman. It was somewhere in the West, and politically correct Europeans wrinkled their noses, but Putin continued. A man tends to attack, and a woman tends to defend herself. The conclusion is clear. The Putin man is advancing, and we? Well, frankly speaking, if we resist, it is somehow sluggish. At least we are not convincing Putin of the seriousness of our resistance. And looking at him, they don’t take us seriously and all the guys like him, in uniform and without them, but with a consciousness of their own superiority.

They are confident that they are in control of the situation. With an oil price of $116 per barrel, they can really afford it: increase pensions, salaries for state employees, organize shows, the Olympics, the World Cup, and so on for show-off. And of course, the politically correct West also eats all this in a wonderful way. And he will eat because “Real is a politician,” because there are no people with values left in politics, and maybe there never were any.

So what should we do? Go to a rally in defense of Udaltsov? They didn’t care about our rally. Signing petitions is even stupider. As an Odessa friend of my father’s youth said, hanging limply over the chessboard, “there is no place to go.” Probably, there are opportunities, at least they say that as long as we are alive, nothing is lost. But it’s worth asking yourself: why didn’t I go to the polls on October 14? Were you sure they would rig it anyway? But if the people had come many times more than those whom the authorities forced to come, I assure you, the result would have been different. This is for starters.

However, I have no right to preach sermons. Yes, I myself don’t know what to do. And I probably feel the same as everyone else. Life goes on, yellow leaves fall, children grow, old people get sick. We, independent adults, are required to do more than others. The absurdity is growing all around. Today I would like to hope that “they” themselves will stop, having realized what kind of hell this obscurantist road of contempt for universal human values and laws adopted throughout the civilized world in the 21st century can lead them to. But many friends convince me that those who walk along this road cannot stop. She herself drags him further and further. So I don't know what to do. If you know, tell me.

The Udaltsov case: the triumph of the absurd