Current Russia is not attractive to anyone. It became a state that disseminates terror and does not respect the basic human rights and freedoms, the president of the Association of Historians of the Republic of Moldova Anatol Petrencu stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. According to the historian, the fall of the Soviet Union was the first step towards freedom and democratization that was taken by the former Soviet republics, IPN reports.
The Russian Federation continues the totalitarian practices to ignore human rights and to promote the opinion that is imposed by the authorities. Media pluralism is banned. Those who exhibit theses that run counter to the official rhetoric can get long jail terms. This is the picture of Russia today, stated Anatol Petrencu.
“We are witness to the restriction of human rights in Russia, of the freedom of expression. All the opposition TV channels were closed down. The opponents of Putin were liquidated. Russia shells Ukrainian cities in order to frighten the people, to show that the Ukrainian state is unable to defend its territories. Russia today is not at all attractive. The human rights there are limited. The jail terms are huge – 20 years and more,” said the Doctor Habilitate of History.
He noted that the Republic of Moldova is a state in which the Soviet totalitarian practices to restrict human rights were overcome. Moldova now ensures the freedom of expression, which is fully absent in Russia. The Republic of Moldova is a democratic state in which the basic human rights are respected. In Russia, if one calls the situation in Ukraine war, not special military operation, they are punished.
“Those who are nostalgic for the Soviet period are probably nomenclaturists. We can tell them that there is no way back. In a totalitarian state, the nomenclature was a caste that enjoyed advantages, special stores, cars by order, trips abroad. Those times cannot be restored as there is capitalism in Russia, as it is in the other former Soviet states,” noted Anatol Petrencu.
According to him, the persons who are nostalgic for the Soviet period should learn more about the way in which the native population of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, has been treated. Russia does not ensure the prosperity of the illegally occupied territories and is an antimodel of democracy. The Tatars from Crimea had to flee to Turkey, to the territory of Ukraine that is not controlled by Russia. But local Russians were also wronged. The disappearance of the Soviet Union represented progress for the former Soviet states as these obtained freedom and regained their independence and national identity.
The public debate “Basic human rights and freedoms in the USSR: Myths and realities” is the fourth installment of the series “100 Years of USSR and 31 Years without USSR: Nostalgia for Chimeras”. The series of debates is staged by IPN News Agency with support from the German foundation “Hanns Seidel”.
