"After they'll clean up in Moscow, start working in the regions..." The network comments on the departure of Dmitry Gudkov

As you know, on the evening of June 6, 41-year-old Russian opposition politician, former State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov hastily left Russia after the threat of criminal prosecution in a fabricated case. He himself wrote about this in his blog:

“I am driving up to Kiev, where I have long planned meetings and broadcasts (today - with Yevgeny Kiselev). Several close sources from the environment of the Presidential Administration reported that if I do not leave the country, the fake criminal case will continue until my arrest. If I stay, a sanction has been given to resolve Gudkov's issue "in any way." I believe that the "Basement Case" that was sucked out of thin air was instituted solely to prevent me from participating in the elections and to squeeze me out of the country at least until election day. I hope that with my departure the zeal of the gendarmes will decrease. My decision was supported by my family and friends, who also received serious information about threats and risks.

Interfax writes that I allegedly violated my recognizance not to leave the place. I have no subscription, don't read Soviet newspapers!"

It is known that the 64-year-old father of Dmitry Gudkov, also an opposition politician and former State Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov, has been in forced emigration in Bulgaria since 2019 due to threats of criminal prosecution for political reasons. It is assumed that Dmitry will not remain in Ukraine, but will join his father.

Social media is commenting on this event sympathetically. For example, political scientist Alexander Morozov, who lives in the Czech Republic, recalls that almost simultaneously with Dmitry Gudkov, Belarusian opposition journalist Artyom Shraibman left Minsk:

“All this, of course, draws some line. Ilya Ponomarev and Dmitry Gudkov, two State Duma deputies, actively participated in the protests of 2011-2012. Ponomarev left immediately - in the summer of 2014. Gudkov held out for another seven years, and nevertheless it ended in departure. Shraibman is forced to leave Minsk. He didn't want this. And even after the start of the protests in Minsk, he found a reliable form of life - he became an expert at the Moscow Carnegie Center. But it quickly became clear that this was no longer protection. At the request of the Minsk KGB, the FSB arrested Feduta and Zenkovich in Moscow and took them to Belarus. And even the Carnegie Center cannot give any guarantees... "

Political scientist Anatoly Nesmiyan is sure that Gudkov was forced out of the country:

“The absurd accusation and the status of a suspect is practically a guarantee of a prison. But at the same time he was released even without a written undertaking not to leave the place, literally pushing him to the decision to flee. Which he took advantage of. All in all, nothing special. Normal fascism. They kill, maim, imprison, throw out of the country. While those who are considered dangerous. Then - just who will fall. Terror is such a thing, he does not know how to stop..."

Journalist Dmitry Kolezev compares the fate of Gudkov and Navalny:

“There is one less oppositional politician in Russia, one more political emigrant. It is unlikely that anyone will blame Gudkov for cowardice: the fate of Navalny demonstrates that the arrest of a political opponent of the Kremlin does not cause mass protest, does not undermine the foundations of the system, does not lead to painful sanctions - that is, there is no rational sense to become a political prisoner in the short and medium term. Navalny chose a different path, he decided to go to the end, in fact voluntarily choosing a prison, Gudkov decided that emigration would suit him better, and it is quite understandable. Moreover, we already have political prisoner No. 1, and becoming a political prisoner No. 2 is an unattractive prospect from all sides.

It is interesting that, according to him, Gudkov was asked not only not to participate in the elections, but also to leave the country. In the age of the Internet, the action is rather symbolic (you can also scold Putin on social networks from Bulgaria), but, as before, painful. Since ancient times, exile and ostracism have been the main form of political punishment, a kind of public execution. True, in ancient Athens, citizens were ostracized during the voting, and in modern Russia it is organized simply by the decision of the Kremlin. Feel the difference.

I suppose that some people in power are even proud of their humanity - they didn't jail, they didn't kill, they were given the opportunity to pack up and leave. Not thirty-seventh year. Although Stalin, by the way, also first expelled Trotsky. And only then he killed..."

The publicist Oleg Kashin drew attention to how the Kremlin propaganda interprets Gudkov's departure:

“Propaganda is mastering new intonations - Gudkov has left, ha-ha, weakling, not a fighter. Protasevich was broken - ha-ha, a real revolutionary would have withstood any torture; as if they missed the opposition of the past, who could have taken over the school, and, as it is believed, blown up the house with tenants, and cut the head of a captured soldier. It is difficult to say whether the reproaches replicated by the loyalists to Protasevich or Gudkov that neither one nor the other is Basayev, but it is worth getting into the situation - after all, if the Kremlin's opponents now have a general feeling of a great cataclysm, the end of the world, it would be strange if in the minds of state media workers, civilian officials, or even security officials, everything remained the same. The end of the world is the end of the world for everyone..."

Journalist Kirill Shulika responds to Gudkov's critics from the divan-opposition camp:

“The nastiest users on the Internet are those who write that Protasevich is a coward, and Gudkov did not fight. But who doesn’t let you fight? You sit on the couch and think that someone should sit in jail for you, hold rallies and screw up, participate in elections, endure wiretapping and oversight. Send you altogether farther there along with your sofa!"

It is curious that another opposition politician, former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman , recently said in an interview with Znak:

“Any my departure will be regarded as an escape. I can not afford it. I took all my old phones out of my house and destroyed all my notes just in case. Address books. I looked through the entire library - what I have, what they can catch on to. I have a backpack, everything is folded there in case of emergency. I appreciate all the risks, I understand everything. I will not change anything, my rhetoric is verified. I try not to go into personal insults anywhere. But I allow myself to call a spade a spade, all this must be done by someone. You have to understand: you can do whatever you want, but suddenly you accidentally swim behind the buoys, or you cross the street on red, or they discover your text 10 years ago, or someone will be offended. No one knows. The situation is similar to 1937, when people were sitting for an anecdote, simply for nothing or might not know what they were doing. In order to sit down, you don't have to write something or do something bad..."

In this regard, publicist Nikolay Podosokorsky is sure:

“It is important to understand that after the federal authorities have dealt with the critics, purges will obviously begin in the regions as well. Once accelerated, the repressive machine will no longer be able to stop even after the September elections. She will have to constantly arrest someone, torture and imprison someone, because she does not know how to do anything else and in this she sees the only meaning of her existence..."