Hybrid war against yourself

The other day I read the news that the Ministry of Finance has put 600 million rubles into the state budget for payments to citizens who win cases against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). And this figure does not let me go.

Although at the end of 2015 Russian legislation was amended to allow ignoring the decisions of the ECHR, in practice it turned out as many experts said: this story was invented specifically for Russia's debt to Yukos of 1.87 billion euros, in general, to break with the ECHR The Kremlin has no plans yet.

The Russian law enforcement and judiciary often try to do everything in order not to execute the decisions of the ECtHR on the merits. Usually, after the annulment of the verdict in Strasbourg, the case goes to retrial in court, where a verdict is passed that does not differ significantly from the rejected one. But the money that the ECtHR awards is actually paid to people. The ECtHR constantly issues judgments obliging Russian citizens to pay thousands of euros.

The overwhelming majority of those who apply to the ECHR are not mere oppositionists, but ordinary Russians who have faced this or that injustice of officials, falsifications during the investigation or trial, police violence, unbearable conditions behind bars.

These are usually very obvious stories. Stories of torture, failure to provide medical care to prisoners, monstrous legal red tape, absurd criminal cases and sentences. These stories do not have any political connotation: pure lawlessness of the bearers of shoulder straps, who feel their complete impunity.

But Russia is not ready to put its own law enforcement officers and jailers in their place - so that they do not harass their own fellow citizens - but it is ready to pay its fellow citizens for their arbitrariness. In my opinion, Russia is waging a hybrid war against itself.

PS Well, of course, you can be absolutely sure that these 600 million have been cut off from education or healthcare. This will not affect the flights of corgi dogs or the salaries of the FSB officers in any way.