Boris Kagarlitsky. Alexander Demyanchuk / TASS
Criminal case initiated against Russian leftist Boris Kagarlitsky
26 July 2023, by Russian Socialist Movement (RSD)
A few hours ago it became known that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had opened a criminal case against well-known left-wing political scientist and sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, editor of the online magazine Rabkor.
The formal reason for initiating the case was 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 this political scientist – in 2018, the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements (ISMO), headed by Kagarlitsky, was classified as a foreign agent, and in April last year, the status of a foreign agent was assigned to Kagarlitsky 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.
Russian Anti-War Sociologist Charged With 'Justifying Terrorism'
July 26, 2023
Boris Kagarlitsky and his daughter Ksenia
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 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 lawyer told the independent Agentstvo news website that the criminal case against his client was related to a post 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 later Wednesday.
FSB searches in connection with the criminal case against Kagarlitsky were carried out in the homes of Penza region sociologist Anna Ochkina, Rabkor’s social media editor Artyom Yerofonov in Yekaterinburg and psychologist Rabkor contributor Alexander Archagov in Moscow.
Kagarlitsky has opposed 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.