lya Baburin is an IT specialist living in Novosibirsk who has been opposed to Moscow’s War on Ukraine since its inception. This year he was convicted on an array of charges – state treason, committing an act of terror, illegal wiretapping, participating in an illegal armed group, and terrorist activity – and sentenced to 25 years in a strict penal colony.
What did Baburin actually do? According to his lawyer, the 24-year-old briefly entertained the idea of throwing a Molotov cocktail into a military commissariat – a wave of such attacks in 2022 followed President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilization call – and discussed it with a couple of friends. He later changed his mind, but his friends went to the security services and ratted him out. FSB agents then conspired with Baburin’s friends to convince him to implement his original plan, effectively provoking the crime, so that they could swiftly arrest him and accuse him of acting on the orders of a Ukrainian armed group.
Below is Baburin’s final declaration in court, the latest in our series of “Last Words” uttered by Russians imprisoned on politically-motivated charges. It remains one of the last vestiges of free speech in modern Russia.
The term I have been sentenced to is absurd. People get 18 years for a double murder. For rape of a child they get 12 to 14 years. And I am getting 25 years for arson of a military commissariat that never even happened.
Not a single person was injured. There is not a kopek of economic damage, and no commissariat was harmed. But who cares? The main thing is that FSB agents and their minions got their rewards and bonuses because of me.
There is an FSB detective who is in my jail. Recently we were locked in punishment cells at the same time. He shared with me that his colleagues spend time online on social media convincing young Russians to set fire to some railway tracks for a reward. For their own job security, they are recruiting children and then locking these children up for 10 to 20 years. I personally wasn’t recruited this way. I was not expecting to be paid for what I had planned to do.
But I know several people in my jail who were recruited by FSB agents. For example, Igor Lushko. At the time of his crime, he was 18, and he set a railway relay on fire. No trains were behind schedule, there was no damage, but, as a result, he got a 20-year sentence in a high-security penal colony. Jailed at 18 for 20 years. And I was jailed at 22 for 25 years. I’ve personally met 10 people in this situation and read through their cases.
In my case, I told the guy who was going to carry out the plan that he shouldn’t set anything on fire, that I’d changed my mind. But he was already cooperating with the FSB. There are documents from FSB detectives in my case; they themselves testified that they instructed this person to convince me to carry out the crimes. I let him talk me into it and was arrested. The FSB didn’t even bother to hide their instructions, and it’s clear from them who the real organizer is. But I am the one currently sitting in jail.
This court has already heard multiple times about violations of my rights, violation of arrest procedures, illegal placement into a solitary cell [1] and a psycho-solitary cell, use of force by transport and anti-terror personnel. Regarding the violations by prison staff, the prosecutor’s office replied and, incredibly, confirmed that these measures against me were illegal. However, the prosecutor is completely silent about the incidents when I was handcuffed and beaten in an FSB van, when they dragged me around this van like a dog after I refused to cooperate. These FSB convoy employees still periodically escort people to places, or maybe they are already dead… but that’s not a reason to ignore my complaints to the prosecutor.
When you observe this situation for months and years, you start to laugh, because it’s so nonsensical. And then they sentence you to 25 years in a high-security penal colony, and it’s no longer a joke. Nothing will change here and in any case, I’m never getting out.
Russia is experiencing a dip in birth rates, with about 599,600 children born in the first six months of 2024 – the lowest figure since 1999 and 16,000 fewer than in the same period of 2023. Meanwhile, some 325,100 persons died during this same period – about 49,000 more than one year earlier. (Rosstat figures published by DW.com)
State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, along with other lawmakers, is convinced that Russians are not having children because of Western culturе’s war on traditional values, rather than their dire economic circumstances and concern for the future.
“Look at Europe,” he commented recently, after the chamber voted in favor of a law criminalizing “childfree propaganda.” “They have even done away with urinals in men’s restrooms; they’ve torn them out. What’s next? Sodom and Gomorrah. We don’t want that.” (Kommersant)
The childfree propaganda bill suggests fines of up to R400,000 (about $4,200) for individuals who are found to be discouraging people from having children.
Because of low birthrates (to say nothing of the nearly one million young professionals who have fled the country since the war began), Russian companies are experiencing shortages of highly-skilled managers, and are struggling to fill top positions. Since 2023, demand for top managers increased by 14% and salaries rose by a factor of 1.6. (HeadHunter statistics published by Kommersant)
“Do you have quadrobers? Children are dressing up as dogs. It’s one of the top news items. They are walking around like animals.”
So said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who seems to have run out of more important issues to discuss, complaining to Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan about a new teenage pastime in Russia, quadrobing. (RIA Novosti)
Quadrobics entails a blend of cosplay and athletics: children use animal masks and other accessories and imitate animal movements, such as by running around on all fours. The pastime is said to have originated in Japan but has become a niche sport in North America. It has drawn the attention of many Russian officials, with Duma lawmakers pondering whether they should ban it.
“Spreading this information [about quadrobics] inspires children to start engaging in such behaviors,” claims Vsevolod Belikov, a St. Petersburg lawmaker. “Those who didn’t know [about it] didn’t do anything. But somebody saw it, they liked it, and next thing you know, they are gathering in forest packs, putting on masks, and running around for acorns, mushrooms, and I don’t know what else.” (Moika78.ru)
A top Russian university is introducing a new “Westernology” course to study “the West,” with an emphasis on the idea that Western civilization is “just one of many,” according to one of the course’s authors, Alexander Dugin. “The course is a paradigm and a life necessity,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Dugin has been a fringe right-wing intellectual for many years, embracing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as part of a morally just crusade against harmful liberal values. His influence on Russian decision-making is likely overblown by the media, although he does have ties to some wealthy businessmen, like Konstantin Malofeyev, and has recently been appointed as the head of the new “political school” within the Russian State University of the Humanities (RGGU).
The Higher Political School in RGGU, named for right-wing philosopher Ivan Ilyin, who is admired by Putin, will be offering its Westernology course as an academic reflection of the spirit of the “civilizational conflict” Russia has stoked in Ukraine. Russia, Dugin wrote in a long article explaining what Westernology is, refuses “to uphold Western culture and the Western mindset as universal.”
Despite institutional support for his ideas, Dugin faced considerable opposition from students at RGGU, who protested naming the university after Ilyin, a philosopher who supported fascist ideas and admired Adolf Hitler. Communist party spokespeople also raged against using Ilyin’s name for a public institution, even hosting a conference in protest of “the radical right wing turn in the education system, the falsification and rewriting of history, and the dissemination… of fascist ideas.”
However, the university’s rector, Alexander Bezborodov, quickly dismissed the criticism, saying that Ilyin’s “deep patriotism” has been “especially highlighted by President Putin,” and students who have raised concerns face “a series of educational activities” at the university.
46% of Russians believe there are some advantages to old age 42% of Russians say old age has no advantages over other times of life
Among the advantages, Russians name the following:
21% a lot of free time, not having to work 6% state pensions and discounts 6% wisdom and life experience 5% fewer cares, ‘living for yourself’ 5% being able to give attention to family, children and grandchildren 4% being able to do hobbies, travelling 1% more respect from other people 1% all around better life and more opportunities 1% other 8% couldn’t say
Among the disadvantages:
13% pensions are too small, working is required 10% illnesses and poor health 5% no energy 3% all around worse, no advantages 2% lack of interest in life, unhappiness 2% feeling unneeded and disrespected 2% poor social support, lack of discounts 2% difficulty finding a job 1% the approach of death 1% bad healthcare, bad treatment by doctors 1% difficulty reaching pension age 1% other 7% couldn’t say
Source: Старость / ФОМ (https://fom.ru/Obraz-zhizni/15082)
[1] Психоизолятор - a term for a cell with rubber walls used for distressed or violent detainees when there is a risk they may harm themselves. Baburin told his lawyer that he gave prison staff no reason to be isolated in such a cell.
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