[ASA_PEWS] Fwd: (Fwd) Update from Boris Kagarlitsky

[Christopher Chase-Dunn]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Patrick Bond <pbond at mail.ngo.za>
Date: Thu, Aug 17, 2023 at 4:35 PM
Subject: (Fwd) Update from Boris Kagarlitsky
To: IANRA list <ianra1 at googlegroups.com>, progeconnetwork at googlegroups.com <
progeconnetwork at googlegroups.com>, DEBATE <debate-list at fahamu.org>,
brics-wkgp <brics-wkgp at googlegroups.com>, <
peoplesforum_brics at googlegroups.com>, Post WSMDiscuss <
wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net>


(We will take time on Monday-Tuesday in Johannesburg, at the brics-from-below
countersummit <http://bricsfrombelow.org/>, to honour Boris' emancipatory
commitments and searing analysis - of which we're fortunate to have more
directly from him, below and in a compilation of his recent views provided
by Jeremy Brecher.)

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/kagarlitsky-letter-from-prison/

Kagarlitsky: Letter From Prison
The night is long that never finds the day.
By Boris Kagarlitsky <https://znetwork.org/author/boriskagarlitsky/>
Sergey Voronin <https://znetwork.org/author/sergey-voroninis/> , Alexandria
Shaner <https://znetwork.org/author/alexandria/> August 16, 2023Z ArticleNo
Comments
<https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/kagarlitsky-letter-from-prison/#respond>4
Mins Read

<?subject=Kagarlitsky%3A%20Letter%20From%20Prison&body=https%3A%2F%2Fznetwork.org%2Fznetarticle%2Fkagarlitsky-letter-from-prison%2F>
Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.
<https://znetwork.org/z_original/>

Boris Kagarlitsky, an internationally renowned scholar and political
activist, was arrested on July 25 by the Russian Federal Security Service.
Despite his lifelong anti-terrorism stance, he is accused of “justifying
terrorism” based on a blog post
<https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/free-boris-kagarlitsky-2/> about the
Russia-Ukraine war. He is being held until September 24 and may face a
seven-year prison term upon trial. An international campaign is demanding
his release <https://freeboris.info> from prison and rallying to support
the Russian movement against the Ukraine war.

After his detention, activists managed to talk to Kagarlitsky. He gave them
a letter, which he asked them to make publicly available to his supporters
and friends.

The full text of the letter (in Russian) was broadcast via Rabkor’s
telegram channel <https://t.me/rabkor/12421> on August 16th at 0800 ET and
already received over 35,000 views in the first 12 hours.

This translation was provided to ZNetwork.org by Sergey Voronin
<https://znetwork.org/author/sergey-voroninis/> and Alexandria Shaner
<https://znetwork.org/author/alexandria/>:

*Letter From Prison*

This is not the first time in my life. I was locked up under Brezhnev,
beaten and threatened with death under Yeltsin. And now it’s the second
arrest under Putin. Those in power change, but the tradition of putting
political opponents behind bars, alas, remains. But the willingness of many
people to make sacrifices for their beliefs, for freedom and social rights
remains unchanged.

I think that the current arrest can be considered a recognition of the
political significance of my statements. Of course, I would have preferred
to be recognized in a somewhat different form, but all in good time. In the
40-odd years since my first arrest, I have learned to be patient and to
realize how fickle political fortune in Russia is.

The weather is not bad in the Komi Republic, where I now find myself by the
will of fate and the FSB investigators, and everything in the prison is not
badly organized. So I am fine. Unfortunately, I’m not yet allowed to use
the books I brought with me. They’re being checked for extremism. I hope
the censors will broaden their horizons in the process of studying them.
One book is about the situation of modern universities, and it was written
by Sergei Zuev, the former rector of Shaninka [Moscow School for the Social
and Economic Sciences], who was also imprisoned. The other is about the
history of the Second World War.

I am allowed to receive letters. There are a lot of them. And it is
possible to reply to them. In this sense, it is easier to be locked up now
than it was under Brezhnev.

Food is also much better. There is a stall where it’s possible to put money
on my account. The list of items in the stall is no worse than in some
delivery stores. The prices are higher, though. One can even order lunch in
the prison cafe. The menu is quite good! However, there is no microwave to
heat up the food.

All in all, one can live. The only question is how long it will last. But
it’s not just my problem. Millions of people all over the country are
thinking the same thing. We share the same fate, no matter where we are or
what conditions we’re in.

It is difficult to understand from the TV set in the cell what is really
going on. But they will tell us the important news anyway. I remember how
in 1982, in Lefortovo prison, every day we waited with interest for the
Pravda newspaper in a mourning frame, to be placed through the tray-slot of
the cell.

The experience of the past years, it would seem, does not dispose much to
optimism. But historical experience as a whole is much richer and gives
much more grounds for positive expectations. Remember what Shakespeare
wrote in Macbeth
<https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Macbeth_(1918)_Yale/Text/Act_IV>?

“The night is long that never finds the day.”

Boris Kagarlitsky

P.S. Many thanks to all those who have expressed solidarity with me, to
those who demand my release, who write letters to prison. Of course, it is
necessary to seek the release of *all* political prisoners. Sooner or later
it will happen. And for some reason, I think sooner rather than later.

——————————————–

To sign a petition demanding freedom for Boris Kagarlitsky:
https://freeboris.info

Read an overview of Kagarlitsky’s recent writings
<https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/free-boris-kagarlitsky-2/> by fellow
activist Jeremy Brecher <https://znetwork.org/author/jeremybrecher/>, from
a Ukraine peace plan to climate movement strategy.

***

https://freeboriskagarlitski.tilda.ws/en

*FREEDOM FOR BORIS KAGARLITSKY! *
Join our fight to free a prominent journalist and left-wing intellectual
imprisoned for exercising his right to free speech. Solidarity is stronger
than repression!

*BORIS KAGARLITSKY IMPRISONED IN RUSSIA*

We are shocked and appalled to learn that on July 25, prominent Russian
socialist thinker Boris Kagarlitsky (64) was arrested in Moscow on
fabricated charges of "justifying terrorism".

Boris Kagarlitsky is an academic scholar whose sociological and
philosophical work is well known the world over. His articles, books, and
interviews are published in many languages. He is a leading Russian
intellectual whose work has built a reputation for his country in global
academia. For several decades, Kagarlitsky has remained an influential
figure both in Russia and worldwide, contributing significantly to
understanding global challenges and fighting for the progress of humanity.
A whole generation of scholars, activists, and politicians has come to
understand Russia and its place in the global community through his books.

The real reason for the repressions against Kagarlitsky is that, since
February 2022, he has consistently denounced the aggression against
Ukraine, underscoring that this barbaric war causes unspeakable harm not
only to the Ukrainian people but also to ordinary Russians. Though many of
us have disagreed with Kagarlitsky in the past, we recognize and applaud
how bravely he has spoken out against the woeful decisions of the Russian
government and remained one of the rare public voices inside Russia
opposing the war. He has stayed in the country, running the YouTube channel
"Rabkor", where he has continued resisting militarization and demanding
profound change in Russia.

Boris Kagarlitsky is now among the tens of thousands of Russians subjected
to state repression, with many sentenced to long prison terms, others
paying massive fines, and still others tortured to death by the police
apparatus. His arrest is yet another chain in a wide-ranging crackdown on
Russian citizens who dare to oppose a regime that has "turned out to be
incompatible not only with human rights and democratic freedoms but simply
with the elementary preservation of the rules of modern civilized existence
for the majority of the population," as Kagarlitsky himself put it
recently. We are furious that matters have now reached the point where a
senior academic scholar is jailed for calling things for what they are.

This is a case of an intellectual being persecuted for free speech. We call
for the release of Kagarlitsky and express solidarity with all political
prisoners in Russia arrested for their antiwar views.

***

The statement below has been signed by more than 150 politicians,
academics, journalists, artists and others from around the world. The
statement organizers would like to draw attention to the statement produced
by members of Boris Kagarlitsky’s family and anti-war Russians and
encourage everyone to sign it at https://freeboriskagarlitski.tilda.ws/en.

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/08/04/freedom-for-boris-kagarlitsky/

*FREEDOM FOR BORIS KAGARLITSKY*
On July 25, renowned intellectual and socialist activist Boris Kagarlitsky
was detained and accused of "justifying terrorism" by the Federal Security
Service (FSB) before being immediately transported to the city of
Syktyvkar, 1300 kilometres from Moscow. There, in a closed hearing and
without his lawyer present, a court decided he should be detained until his
trial in September, where he will face the possibility of up to 7 years in
prison.

The arrest and detention of Kagarlitsky has taken place within the context
of a repressive campaign that the government has been carrying out with the
intention of silencing all those voices that oppose the invasion of Ukraine
and its domestic policies. Since last year, the Putin government has
dedicated itself to persecuting, jailing or forcing into exile recognised
politicians, intellectuals and activists that have publicly opposed the war
as well as simple citizens that have expressed their opinions on social
media. Kagarlitsky himself had been labelled a "foreign agent" in May last
year.

We express our solidarity with Boris Kagarlitsky and demand his immediate
release, as well as the release of all those detained for political reasons.

***
Free Boris Kagarlitsky!
Russian scholar and activist Boris Kagarlitsky has been jailed for a blog
post on the Russia-Ukraine war. His recent writings range from a Ukraine
peace plan to climate movement strategy. An international campaign is
demanding his release from prison.
By Jeremy Brecher <https://znetwork.org/author/jeremybrecher/>August 16,
2023

Boris Kagarlitsky, an internationally known scholar and a longtime
political activist, was arrested by the Russian Federal Security Service on
July 25. Although a consistent opponent of terrorism, Kagarlitsky is
accused of “justifying terrorism” under the Criminal Code of the Russian
Federation because of a blog post on the Russia-Ukraine war. He was ordered
held until September 24; it is expected he will then be put on trial on
charges that could bring a seven-year prison sentence. An international
movement is demanding his release, not only to win justice for Kagarlitsky
himself but to support the Russian movement against the Ukraine war, one of
the few forces that can help halt the devastation of the Ukrainian and
Russian people and the threat of even more devastating escalation.

Kagarlitsky’s arrest is just the latest of many efforts by the regime of
Vladimir Putin to repress all opposition to Russia’s war against Ukraine by
jailing thousands of protestors and driving many others into exile. It
calls to mind the repression of the Vietnam war resistance under Lyndon
Johnson and Richard Nixon through the prosecution of such notable Americans
as Dr. Benjamin Spock, Rev. William Sloan Coffin, and Daniel Ellsberg, as
well as thousands of anti-war demonstrators and draft resisters.
Kagarlitsky has undoubtedly put himself in harm’s way to help stimulate a
similar resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Kagarlitsky has described Russia’s war against Ukraine as “the insane
adventurist plans of the government of the Russian Federation.” But he is
no shill for NATO, the US, or Western imperialism; as he says, he has
“consistently condemned the invasions of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yugoslavia for
so many years, held protests against the bombing and interference in the
affairs of sovereign countries and rallies of solidarity with the peoples
of these countries.”[1]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftn1>
For
decades he has been an analyst and critic of both the Russian state and of
the capitalist West. He has the distinction of having been arrested
previously for his scholarly and political activities by the Soviet Union
in the days of Yuri Andropov; by the emerging Russian government of Boris
Yeltsin in 1993; and under Vladimir Putin in 2021.

I first became aware of Boris Kagarlitsky in 1994 when I was researching
the early use of the Internet for political activism. On the night of
October 3, 1993, Moscow police arrested him and two other leading members
of the Russian Party of Labor. They were systematically beaten to try to
get them to confess to killing two policemen. The next night the wife of
one discovered where they were and contacted a union officer. Within
minutes, a message appealing for protest calls was posted on a series of
international computer sites by means of that then-newfangled thing,
E-mail. Kagarlitsky described what happened next:

We were watching from the cell as the phone calls came in. One of the first
was from Japan. The police didn’t seem able to believe it. After that, the
calls seemed to be coming from everywhere – there were quite a few from the
[San Francisco] Bay Area in the United States.”

When police told callers that the prisoners had been released, the
prisoners yelled at the top of their lungs that they were still being held.
Within a few hours, most of the detainees were released and the frame-up
charges were dropped.[2]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftn2>

I met and got to know Boris Kagarlitsky when then-congressman Bernie
Sanders brought him to Washington to testify before the U.S. House of
Representatives Banking Subcommittee. Rep. Sanders had forged a temporary
coalition with a rightwing congressman to oppose US funding for the
International Monetary Fund. Sanders identified the IMF as the engine of
economic destruction in the third world countries subjected to “structural
adjustment” and in a Russia subjected to “shock therapy.” Kagarlitsky, at
that time a senior research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute for Comparative Political Studies and an advisor to the Duma,
said IMF loans had not helped the Russian people. “The one thing we need
from the West now is to leave us in peace,” he said. “We need it to stop
imposing economic policies that are ruinous for us, while using the pretext
of giving us aid.”[3]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftn3>

Kagarlitsky is clearly no apologist for Western capitalist domination of
Russia and Eastern Europe. He was shocked at the extent to which
Washington, despite the fall of the Soviet Union, was still in thrall to a
crude cold war mentality – notably when one congressman red-baited him for
merely using the word “dialectic” in a statement that had nothing to do
with leftism or Marxism.

While Kagarlitsky is best known today for his outspoken opposition to the
Russian war on Ukraine, for decades he has been an outspoken critic of
every Russian regime; an interpreter of the developing crisis of global
capitalism; and an advocate of the old-fashioned – but perhaps also
futuristic – idea that working people can and must join worldwide to stop
the devastation wreaked by rival elites – devastation today represented by
the Ukraine war, the threat of nuclear war, and the realities of climate
change. It is worth taking a look at his recent proposals, ranging from a
peace plan for the Ukraine war to a strategy for global action on climate
change.
*A Peace Plan for the Ukraine War*

Kagarlitsky acknowledges that there are sharply differing assessments on
the left both of responsibility for the Ukraine war and what should be done
about it. But he has recently tried to focus attention on how to stop it:
“It is necessary to stop the bloodshed not only to correct the previous
injustices, but also to prevent new ones.” He acknowledges this “won’t be
easy or simple.” But “The peoples are tired of war, they want peace,” and
therefore a plan is needed that will “stop the bloodshed and create
conditions for the mutual laying down of arms, without fear of monstrous
consequences for Ukrainians and Russians.” He advocates “an honest peace
without territorial conquest or any further aggressive policy,” with
remuneration for all the destruction “not from the pockets of the working
people, but at the expense of those who unleashed this massacre.” He
suggests a four-point peace plan:

   1.

   Stop fighting on both sides;
   2.

   Cessation of any supply of foreign weapons and ammunition to both
   Ukraine and Russia;
   3.

   Abandonment by the Russian Armed Forces of the territory of Ukraine as
   of February 1, 2014 (“zero option”);
   4.

   The UN and its peacekeeping forces are temporarily introduced to the
   territories left by the Russian Federation Armed Forces.

In order to avoid clashes and outrages on both sides, he proposes a
“humanitarian corridor” in the territories left by the Russian troops for
the unhindered exit of residents in both directions, and to temporarily
deploy UN peacekeeping forces from among countries that are not directly or
indirectly involved in the conflict.

He recognizes that the chances of this scenario occurring are extremely
small. But looking at the reactions to this program will allow us to find
out “what is actually more important to the elites and governments – is it
land and territory, saving face (in fact, saving power and capital), or is
it people’s lives?”[4]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftn4>

Kagarlitsky’s approach has been attacked not only by the Russian government
but by some Western leftists who portray it as supporting US hegemony and
Western domination. Those of us who resisted the US war in Vietnam will be
painfully reminded both of our repression by our own government and of the
claims of liberals and even some leftists that we were acting as pawns for
Communist world domination. Just as millions of people around the world
supported the US anti-war movement that helped end the Vietnam war, support
for the Russian peace movement can contribute significantly to ending a war
that elites on all sides seem determined to perpetuate.
*“The Main Challenge that Humanity Has to Face”* Kagarlitsky makes clear
that the Ukraine war is taking place in the context of global climate
catastrophe. Indeed, he presents the Russian-Ukrainian war as “just a
specific aspect of a global transition process.” Already in the early
2000s, “the climate crisis began to be perceived as the main challenge that
humanity has to face in the 21st century.” But he expresses skepticism
about the willingness and even the ability of existing elites in either
East or West to seriously address climate change.[5]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftn5>

“No one in Russia publicly denies that there is a problem.” At the same
time, “no one among top Russian politicians ever considers that to be
anything serious.” The Russian elite believes “As long as we can continue
to sell oil, the rest doesn’t matter.” This will continue for another
decade or so, and “they do not care about anything that is going to happen
in two or three decades from now.”

Western elites do understand that certain changes are necessary to address
climate change. But the problem is “who is going to pay the bills” for the
process of transition? Elites in the West do not want to pay. “They’re
going to make someone else pay for the transition.” Unlike Russian elites,
“who do not think the transition is possible or necessary,” western elites
“understand that something has to be done,” but “somebody else, not them,
has to pay the cost of the transition.”

Climate discussion has not been about “socio-economic transformation,” but
about “technology and scientific theories.” But the main problem is
“economic interests in one way or another affected by the environmental
agenda.” Political and corporate representatives of the ruling class hope
to use climate policy to promote economic growth “without sacrificing the
fundamental principles of neoliberalism,” in particular “without changing
the balance of power between labor and capital.” The corporate
environmental agenda “presupposes sacrifice on the part of the working
classes for the sake of preserving the efficiency of capital.”

Can this work? Not necessarily. Kagarlitsky believes we are going to face
“a period of turmoil.” The problem for the elites is that “their policies
are inconsistent with reality.” They are inconsistent with the objective
process which is taking place in the nature of the planet.

As an alternative, Kagarlitsky calls for “eco socialist and democratic
planning.” This is not to advocate “a Stalinist kind of centralized
bureaucratic planning and autocratic political regime.” But “environmental
activities should be combined with economic development and social
development.” He cites the large and successful Russian reforestation
program of the 1920s and 1930s as an example. “There was a serious effort
to do things in a complex way to combine social, economic, and financial
elements within one particular effort to achieve particular goals.” (This
may also call to mind the reforestation program of the US New Deal in the
Great Depression – and the proposals of today’s Green New Deal.)

*How could this be accomplished today?*

There are plenty of resources available. These resources are just in the
wrong hands. These resources are in the hands of people who want things to
stay exactly as they are now. So there must be some kind of global effort
to expropriate the global oligarchy and to establish global environmental
planning combined with social development.

Kagarlitsky calls for environmentalist social movements “to undertake a
profound reorientation and connect with labor movements in the Global North
and the Global South.” Ultimately, “this means building new
internationalist movements.”[6]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftn6>

Kagarlitsky was arrested for speaking truth to power – and, even more
threateningly, speaking truth to the powerless. The international campaign
to free Boris Kagarlitsky can be a vehicle for building those new
internationalist movements.

To sign a petition demanding freedom for Boris Kagarlitsky:

https://freeboris.info
------------------------------

[1]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftnref1>
Boris
Kagarlitsky, “My Peace Plan,” *Portside*, June 30, 2023.
https://portside.org/2023-06-30/boris-kagarlitsky-my-peace-plan

[2]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftnref2>
Jeremy
Brecher and Tim Costello, *Global Village or Global Pillage* (Boston: South
End Press, 1994), pp. 130-131.

[3]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftnref3>
Robert
Lyle, “Russia: IMF Strategy Failed,” *Radio Free Europe*, September 9,
1998. https://www.rferl.org/a/1089461.html

[4]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftnref4>
Boris
Kagarlitsky, “My Peace Plan,” *Portside*, Ibid.
https://portside.org/2023-06-30/boris-kagarlitsky-my-peace-plan

[5]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftnref5>
Boris
Kagarlitsky interview, “Russia, Climate Crisis, and the War in Ukraine,”
*theAnalysis.news*
https://theanalysis.news/russia-climate-crisis-and-the-war-in-ukraine-boris-kagarlitsky-pt-3/
and
Boris Kagarlitsky,  “Internationalist Movements? Climate Crisis, Working
Class, the Means Of Production,” *Le Club*, January 26, 2023.
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/260123/internationalist-movements-climate-crisis-working-class-means-production

[6]
<https://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/free-boris-kagarlitsky/#_ftnref6>
Internationalist
Movements? Climate Crisis, Working Class, The Means Of Production, Ibid.
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/berliner-gazette/blog/260123/internationalist-movements-climate-crisis-working-class-means-production

On 7/27/2023 6:53 AM, Patrick Bond wrote:

(I've known Boris since he visited South Africa 30 years ago and he often
hosted me in Moscow. This arrest comes a week after we began discussing
publication of his latest book in South Africa, and coordinating his online
appearance at a University of Johannesburg brics-from-below teach-in on
21-22 August.)

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/26/headlines/russian_sociologist_and_dissident_boris_kagarlitsky_facing_terrorism_charges

Russian media reports prominent sociologist and dissident Boris Kagarlitsky
was detained and is being charged with calling for terrorism. The charges
could land him in prison for up to seven years, according to his lawyer.
Boris Kagarlitsky appeared on Democracy Now! in December of last year.

*Boris Kagarlitsky*: “Russia is losing the war, and Russia is going to lose
the war inevitably. So, this is a very, very dramatic news for the Russian
public. But now what has been happening is that the Russian public is
beginning to understand this reality.”

In related news, Russian lawmakers approved legislation Tuesday that would
increase the upper age limit for military conscription from 27 to 30 and
ban drafted Russians from leaving the country.

***

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/07/26/russian-anti-war-sociologist-charged-with-justifying-terrorism-a81969

*The Moscow Times*
Russian Anti-War Sociologist Charged With 'Justifying Terrorism'
<https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/07/26/russian-anti-war-sociologist-charged-with-justifying-terrorism-a81969>

Boris Kagarlitsky, a Russian sociologist and Marxist theorist who has
openly opposed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, has been detained on charges
of “justifying terrorism” online, his lawyer said
<https://tass.ru/proisshestviya/18363143> Wednesday.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) transferred Kagarlitsky to the city of
Syktyvkar in northwestern Russia’s republic of Komi, where the case against
him is being investigated, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

Kagarlitsky, a professor at the Moscow School of Social and Economic
Sciences, faces up to seven years in prison under Russia’s laws on
“justifiying terrorism.”

“Professor Kagarlitsky has never supported or justified terrorism in his
activities,” the sociologist’s lawyer Sergei Yerokhov told reporters,
adding that his client denies the charges.

“The purpose of all his speeches is to show the real problems the Russian
state is facing,” Yerokhov added.

The laywer told <https://t.me/agentstvonews/3832> the independent Agentstvo
news website that the criminal case against his client was related to a post
<https://t.me/kagarlitsky/1010> made on the Telegram messaging app, where
Kagarlitsky analyzed the military implications of the October 2022
explosion on the Crimea bridge.

A Syktyvkar court ordered him to two months of pre-trial detention, the
independent Sota news outlet reported <https://t.me/sotaproject/63572>
later Wednesday.

FSB searches in connection with the criminal case against Kagarlitsky
were carried
out <https://t.me/Govorit_NeMoskva/12802> in the homes of Penza region
sociologist Anna Ochkina, Rabkor’s <https://vk.com/wall-48246439_115023> social
media editor Artyom Yerofonov in Yekaterinburg and psychologist Rabkor
contributor Alexander Archagov in Moscow.

Kagarlitsky has opposed
<https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-tragedy-of-war>Russia’s
2022 invasion of Ukraine while remaining in the country.

He serves as director of the Institute of Globalization and Social
Movements, which Russia’s Justice Ministry designated as a “foreign agent”
in 2018.

***

https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article8185
“Organize a broad solidarity campaign and demand the immediate release of
Boris Kagarlitsky and all political prisoners”

Wednesday 26 July 2023, by Russian Socialist Movement (RSD)
<https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?auteur876>

Criminal case initiated against Boris Kagarlitsky.

A few hours ago it became known that the FSB had opened a criminal case
against well-known left-wing political scientist and sociologist, editor of
the *Rabkor* online magazine Boris Kagarlitsky. The formal reason for
initiating the case was the alleged "justification of terrorism", but we
are absolutely sure that the persecution of Kagarlitsky is a political
reprisal for his views.

Recently, Boris has been actively commenting on the current political
situation, openly criticizing both the domestic and foreign policies of the
Russian authorities.

The regime repeatedly tried to silence the political scientist – in 2018,
the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements (ISMO), headed by
Kagarlitsky, was recognized as a foreign agent, and in April last year, the
status of a foreign agent was assigned to himself.

Having started his activity back in the Soviet Union, Kagarlitsky was first
imprisoned during the rule of Yuri Andropov. Under Yeltsin, during the
events of October 1993, he opposed the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet,
for which he was detained and severely beaten. In 2021, for calls to
participate in protests after the elections to the State Duma, he served 10
days of administrative arrest. Now Kagarlitsky can go to jail for up to 5
years.

The criminal case against Boris Kagarlitsky is an attack on the entire left
movement. You can disagree as much as you like with individual statements
and conclusions made by him in different periods of public activity, but we
will resolve all our contradictions in the course of an open and honest
discussion, when Boris is free.

We call on all socialist and communist organizations to organize a broad
solidarity campaign and demand the immediate release of Boris Kagarlitsky
and all political prisoners.

In his latest articles and speeches, Kagarlitsky remained invariably
optimistic about the prospects for the current Russian government, or
rather, their absence. Objective reality shows that this optimism is fully
justified - starting a total cleansing of the remnants of civil society,
the authorities are trying to plug a leak the size of a core with a bottle
cap.

*26 July 2023*

***

https://www.counterfire.org/article/free-arrested-russian-socialist-and-anti-war-campaigner-boris-kagarlitsky/
Free arrested Russian socialist and anti-war campaigner Boris Kagarlitsky
Vladimir Unkovski-Korica
<https://www.counterfire.org/author/vladimir-unkovski-korica/> 26 July 2023
News <https://www.counterfire.org/types/news/>
[image: Boris Kagarlitsky speaking at an anti-war rally in Germany.] Boris
Kagarlitsky speaking at an anti-war rally in Germany. Photo: Fraktion DIE
LINKE. im Bundestag on Flickr
Repression intensifies as Russia prepares to mobilise fresh troops for the
war in Ukraine, explains Vladimir Unkovski-Korica

Repression is intensifying in Russia. On Tuesday 25 July, news filtered
through to international media that Boris Kagarlitsky, a well-known
academic, socialist and anti-war voice, had been detained by Russia’s
Federal Security Service (FSB).

Charged with ‘justifying terrorism’, Kagarlitsky has reportedly been moved
from Moscow to the more remote Komi region where he will be held by the
local FSB until a court hears the case on Thursday. Another activist,
Alexander Archagov, a psychologist, has also been detained in relation to
the case.

It is unclear on what the charges rest, but the arrests come amid news that
the Russian parliament backed legislation raising the maximum age of
conscription and cracking down on draft-dodging, as rumours swirl of a
renewed military mobilisation.

Such measures by the Russian government betray a deep nervousness about the
popularity of its war effort. Kagarlitsky is a prominent figure in Russia,
having been a leftist dissident during the Soviet era. He was briefly
arrested under Leonid Brezhnev in 1982 for publishing an oppositional
left-wing journal.

Later, while serving on Moscow’s City Soviet, he was briefly arrested
again, now under supposed liberal-democrat Boris Yeltsin, for opposing the
latter’s unconstitutional attempts at dissolving the Soviet-era parliament,
which ended in Yeltsin’s use of the army against the defiant legislature in
1993.

By the mid-1990s, Kagarlitsky had earned a doctorate and wrote extensively
on Russian history and politics. He was the director of the left-wing
Institute of Globalisation Studies and Social Movements (IGSO) and has most
recently been lecturer at the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic
Sciences.

His oppositional activity under Vladimir Putin has now led to his latest
arrest. It was clear that trouble was brewing as he had already in May been
placed on the Orwellian register of foreign agents.

But Kagarlitsky was not cowed. His recent analysis of the Wagner coup, with
its unflattering depiction of Russian ruling circles, would have ruffled
feathers. Kagarlitsky argued that the mafia-style deals cut to end the
aborted coup showed even to the supporters of President Putin and Wagner
boss Yevgeny Prigozhin that their leaders were indecisive and weak.

Such searing criticism would not be tolerated by a regime that has tried
desperately to keep its population inoculated from the regime’s war in
Ukraine. After all, imperialist states brook no criticism. Witness the
treatment of Wikileaks founder and whistleblower Julian Assange, who
languishes in a UK prison waiting for deportation to the US, for, among
other misdemeanours, exposing Western war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Kagarlitsky is being punished for doing the duty of every socialist,
maintaining that the main enemy of working people is at home. We must
demand his release, but we must also redouble our own efforts to ensure
that our governments stop pursuing a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine
and instead press for a negotiated resolution to the conflict.

***


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/26/boris-kagarlitsky-arrest-war-ukraine/
...

Russia’s Federal Security Service on Tuesday arrested left-wing
sociologist Boris
Kagarlitsky <http://www.kagarlitsky.narod.ru/bio.html> on a charge of
“justifying terrorism” for comments on social media in October — the latest
move in a widening wartime crackdown on dissent by the government of
President Vladimir Putin.

The former Soviet dissident, a Marxist author and activist, was transferred
by authorities to the northern city of Syktyvkar, more than 800 miles from
his Moscow home.

The prominent pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov called the arrest a “gross
political mistake” — rare criticism from the pro-war camp about action
against an antiwar figure.

“Stay away from Kagarlitsky!” Markov warned on Telegram. Imprisoning him,
he said, would cause “huge harm to Russia in the world.”

The arrest highlighted the deepening fractures in Russian society as Putin
persists in his war in Ukraine despite signs that his military is largely
stalled and slowly losing ground amid a grinding Ukrainian counteroffensive.

***
дочь иноагента
@ntonipresident
·
15h
Replying to @ntonipresident
We also start fundraising for helping and supporting Boris Kagarlitsky!
Bank credentials: 2200700600473069 - Tinkoff 5269880012324208 - Freedom
bank (for international transactions) Our strength in solidarity! Freedom
to Boris Kagarlitsky! Freedom to all prisoners of the state!

***

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/07/26/you-can-always-find-a-crime-to-charge-someone-with
‘You can always find a crime to charge someone with’ Russian leftist
thinker Boris Kagarlitsky faces seven years in prison for ‘justifying
terrorism.’ Meduza spoke with his daughter about his arrest.
8:56 pm, July 26, 2023
Source: Meduza
<https://meduza.io/feature/2023/07/26/on-vsegda-byl-ostorozhen>
Interview by Kristina Safonova

On the morning of July 25, Boris Kagarlitsky, a political scientist, the
editor-in-chief of the online publication Rabkor <https://rabkor.ru/>, and
one of the most well-known leftist thinkers in Russia, was arrested
<https://meduza.io/en/news/2023/07/26/anti-war-sociologist-boris-kagarlitsky-arrested-for-justifying-terrorism-over-post-about-crimean-bridge-explosion>
on charges of “justifying terrorism.” Later that day, Kagarlitsky’s family
found out he had been moved to Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic. There, the
local FSB office opened a criminal case against him, presumably for a post
<https://t.me/kagarlitsky/1010> he made in 2022 about the Crimean Bridge
explosion
<https://meduza.io/en/news/2022/10/08/large-explosion-reported-at-bridge-connecting-russia-to-crimea>.
Kagarlitsky has reportedly been sent <https://t.me/ovdinfo/18841> to a
remand prison for a period of two months. If found guilty, he faces up to
seven years in prison. Meduza spoke with his daughter Ksenia Kagarlitsky to
learn more about the circumstances of his arrest.

“We [Boris Kagarlitsky’s family] knew something was wrong from the
morning,” explains Ksenia, who said her father never showed up at the
airport to pick up her mother. He had also stopped responding to phone
calls, she said. The family was worried he could have suffered a heart
attack or a stroke, but also that someone [from the security services]
could have gotten him. “We found out [about the criminal case] from the
news.”

“Of course, we were shocked [when we heard about the criminal case],” says
Ksenia. “Boris was always careful about what he said and never said
anything that could be classified as justifying terrorism.”

It wasn’t until the evening that they received news about his location from
his lawyer [Sergey Yerokhov], who has helped Kagarlitsky on previous
occasions. According to him, Kagarlitsky was in good spirits. He also said
that some investigative measures were taken, though it’s not clear yet what
exactly this involves. In regard to why the Komi Republic decided to open
the criminal case specifically, the family also isn’t sure. Ksenia said,
jokingly, that maybe someone high up decided that “the commies will be
prosecuted in Komi.”

Though it’s difficult to explain the timing of the arrest, Ksenia says it
could be to balance out the recent arrest of former commander of the
self-proclaimed “LNR” Igor Strelkov.
<https://meduza.io/en/news/2023/07/21/telegram-blogger-igor-strelkov-arrested>
“When you arrest someone on the right, then you have to lock up someone on
the left.” She adds, “but that’s a conspiracy theory.” Generally, she says,
anyone who has some kind of media resources and continues to live in Russia
is at risk. While Kagarlitsky spent ten days in prison in 2021, Ksenia says
she hadn’t heard of any threats toward him since then.

“You can always find a crime to charge someone with. They can frame you for
anything, come up with whichever charge, and connect it to whichever post,”
remarks Ksenia.

In order to pay for Kagarlitsky lawyer’s to travel from Moscow to the Komi
Republic several times per month, as well as for his legal services, his
family have opened a donation fund <https://t.me/rabkor/11891>. They’re
also looking for [another] local lawyer to help with the case.

The last time Ksenia spoke with her father was on Saturday, when they
discussed a livestream <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4p2wNDAX6M> with
the [the politician] Mikhail Pletnev
<https://msk1.ru/text/politics/2022/07/30/71525702/> that he had hosted
earlier that day. Ksenia said he was in a good mood, as always.

As to why Kagarlitsky never left Russia despite holding openly anti-war
positions and having spent over a year in Lefortovo Prison in the 1980s,
Ksenia says, from her point of view, it’s similar to Navalny’s situation:

Navalny returned to Russia, where it was all very sad and there was nothing
good waiting for him, because he believed
<https://meduza.io/en/news/2021/01/13/alexey-navalny-announces-return-to-russia-following-poisoning>
that [a Russian] politician should be in Russia. Maybe that’s not the right
comparison, but I think that it’s a similar situation. If you’re involved
in politics in Russia, […] even just as an analyst, you should be in the
country in order to stay in the loop.

When asked if Kagarlitsky discussed his previous stints in prison, Ksenia
said he told her that he’s had trouble with every Russian administration.
In Soviet times, he was imprisoned for “anti-Soviet propaganda,” and under
Yeltsin, he was detained for opposing the then-president’s attempt to
dissolve the Supreme Soviet. “Each time, there is of course stress,
adrenaline, adventure. I think that’s the life of the political opposition
in Russia.”

***

https://www.european-left.org/criminal-case-initiated-against-russian-left-wing-scientist-and-activist-boris-kagarlitsky/

*Criminal case initiated against Russian left-wing scientist and activist
Boris Kagarlitsky*
[image: News Image]
Published on: 26.07.2023

On Wednesday 26 July, the Russian secret service FSB opened a criminal case
against well-known left-wing political scientist and sociologist, editor of
the Rabkor online magazine Boris Kagarlitsky.

The formal reason for initiating the case was the alleged “justification of
terrorism”, but it is obvious that the persecution of Kagarlitsky is a
political reprisal for his views.

Recently, Boris has been actively commenting on the current political
situation, openly criticizing both the domestic and foreign policies of the
Russian authorities.
The regime repeatedly tried to silence the globally well-known and
acknowledged political scientist – in 2018, the Institute of Globalization
and Social Movements (ISMO), headed by Kagarlitsky, was recognized as a
foreign agent, and in April last year, the status of a foreign agent was
assigned to himself.

Having started his activity back in the Soviet Union, Kagarlitsky was first
imprisoned during the rule of Yuri Andropov. Under Yeltsin, during the
events of October 1993, he opposed the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet,
for which he was detained and severely beaten. In 2021, for calls to
participate in protests after the elections to the State Duma, he served 10
days of administrative arrest. Now Kagarlitsky could go to jail for up to 5
years.

It is also obvious that the criminal case against Boris Kagarlitsky is an
attack on the entire left movement.

The President of the Party of the European Left, Walter Baier sent a letter
of protest to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Brussels. It says:

“The Russian authorities are obviously trying to confirm all the
accusations made in the West. To prosecute Boris Kagarlitsky as a ‘foreign
agent’ and ‘justifier of terrorism’ is as absurd as calling the war started
by the Russian Federation a ‘special action’.

Kagarlitsky and his medium Rabkor are one of the few remaining dissident
voices in the country. Russia needs truth as much as it needs peace. On
behalf of the European Left Party, we demand an end to the repression of
Boris Kagarlitsky, his colleagues and Rabkor, and the establishment of
freedom of expression in Russia.”

***

https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/29/a-plea-to-my-western-progressive-friends-stop-helping-putin-with-your-conciliatory-and-ambiguous-statements/

May 29, 2023
A Plea to My Western Progressive Friends: Stop Helping Putin with Your
Conciliatory and Ambiguous Statements
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/05/29/a-plea-to-my-western-progressive-friends-stop-helping-putin-with-your-conciliatory-and-ambiguous-statements/>
by Boris Kagarlitsky
<https://www.counterpunch.org/author/boris-kagarlitsky/>

A long-retired Russian military man was discussing current events by phone
with a former colleague living in Ukraine. Both resented the war between
the two recently fraternal countries and expressed the hope that this
madness would soon end. A few days later, representatives of the special
services raided the Russian. He did not give out any military secrets, and
no one accused him of this. He was charged, however, with publicly
discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In turn, the
former officer, who knew the laws, objected that the conversation had been
a private one. And such a charge was meant to apply to public statements
only. “But it was public,” objected the intelligence officers. “After all,
*we* heard it!”

This is not a fragment from a story written by a modern imitator of Franz
Kafka or George Orwell, but news that is now being discussed on Russian
social networks. There you can also find numerous reports of fines imposed
on people who had inadvertently painted their fence yellow and blue many
years ago, now risking undesirable associations with the Ukrainian flag, or
who thoughtlessly went out into the street in blue jeans and a yellow
jacket. It got to the point that the police considered writing a
denunciation on a box of apples. The fruits were guilty of the fact that
the same “enemy colors” were present in the package.

Perhaps Western readers may find all these episodes ridiculous. But try to
imagine what it is like to live in a state where you can be detained and
prosecuted for wearing the wrong clothes, for liking a “seditious” post on
social networks, or simply because the incoming police chief did not like
your appearance. As a matter of principle, Russian courts do not pass down
acquittals (in this regard, the situation is much worse than in Stalin’s
time), so any accusation, even the most absurd, is considered proven as
soon as it is brought. And this applies not only to political matters,
which would be at least somewhat understandable in a war, but in general to
any criminal or administrative case.

To my Western colleagues, who, after more than a year since the beginning
of the war, continue to call for an understanding of Putin and his regime,
I would like to ask a very simple question. Do you want to live in a
country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country
where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant?
In a country where museum buildings and collections formed over decades are
handed over to churches, heedless of the threat of losing unique artifacts?
In a country where schools drift away from the study of science and plan to
abolish the teaching of foreign languages, but conduct “lessons about the
important,” during which children are taught to write denunciations and are
taught to hate all other peoples? In a country which every day broadcasts
appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?

I don’t think you really want to.

We in Russia also do not want to live like this.

We resist or at least try to preserve our beliefs and principles based on
the humanistic tradition of Russian culture. And when we read on the
Internet about another call to “understand Putin” or “to meet him halfway,”
this is perceived inside Russia as complicity with criminals who oppress
and ruin our own country.

Such appeals are based on a deep, almost racist contempt for the people of
Russia, for whom, according to Western liberal pacifists, it is perfectly
natural and acceptable to live under the rule of a corrupt dictatorship.

Of course, when someone tells you that the Putin regime is a threat to the
West or to the whole of humanity, this is complete nonsense. The people to
whom this regime poses the most terrible threat is (aside from the
Ukrainians, who are bombarded daily by shells and missiles) the Russians
themselves, their people and culture, their future.

It is clear that Putin and the system he leads have changed over the past
few years; these same people in the mid-2010s could look quite decent
compared to other world politicians. Certainly, they pursued the same
antisocial policy, lied the same way, tried to manipulate public opinion
just like their Western counterparts. But the crisis that has been going on
for the past three years, the war and total corruption, have led to
irreversible shifts, in which the preservation of the existing political
regime turned out to be incompatible not only with human rights and
democratic freedoms, but simply with the elementary preservation of the
rules of modern civilized existence for the majority of the population.

We must deal with this problem ourselves. How quickly this will happen, how
many trials will come along the way, how many more people will suffer, no
one can know. But we know exactly what will occur. The decay of the regime
will inevitably lead the country to revolutionary changes, which the
supporters of the existing government will write about with horror.

And from the Western progressive public, we only need one thing – stop
helping Putin with your conciliatory and ambiguous statements. The more
often such statements are made, the greater will be the confidence of
officials, deputies and policemen that the current order can continue to
exist with the silent support or hypocritical grumbling of the West. Every
conciliatory statement made by liberal intellectuals in America results in
more arrests, fines, and searches of democratic activists and just plain
people here in Russia.

We do not need any favor but a very simple one: an understanding of the
reality that has developed in Russia today. Stop identifying Putin and his
gang with Russia. Realize at last: those who want the good of Russia and
the Russians cannot but be irreconcilable enemies of this power.

*First published at **Russian Dissent*
<https://russiandissent.substack.com/p/a-very-simple-request>*. Translated
by Dan Erdman.*

*Boris Kagarlitsky PhD is a historian and sociologist who lives in Moscow.
He is a prolific author of books on the history and current politics of the
Soviet Union and Russia and of books on the rise of globalized capitalism.
Fourteen of his books have been translated into English. The most recent
book in English is ‘From Empires to Imperialism: The State and the Rise of
Bourgeois Civilisation’ (Routledge, 2014). Kagarlitsky is chief editor of
the Russian-language online journal Rabkor.ru (The Worker). He is the
director of the Institute for Globalization and Social Movements, located
in Moscow.*




-- 
chris chase-dunn   邓宇歌
institute for research on world-systems
university of california-riverside
riverside, ca 92521 USA
mailing address: 2007 mt vernon ave, riverside, ca 92507 usa
Consider using my textbook in your class:
_Social Change: Globalization from the Stone Age to the Present_ Routledge
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