How Putin's Russia is weaponising psychiatry against its critics - Index on Censorship
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The Russian leader is revisiting the Cold War playbook by using mental manipulation to silence dissidents and its use is growing

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The Russian leader is revisiting the Cold War playbook by using mental manipulation to silence dissidents and its use is growing

[…]

A new Russian bill, which will become law in 2025, will allow the police to gain access to the medical records of people suffering from certain mental illnesses and who are deemed by psychiatrists to be a threat to public order.

Dmitry Kutovoy, a member of Russia’s Psychiatric Association, said he had concerns that amending legislation could contribute to creating a system of oppression using psychiatry. He warned that the authorities might put pressure on medical workers to designate certain people as “activists, political opponents, and so on”.

[…]

Abuse of psychiatry to persecute and intimidate state critics was a popular practice in the Soviet Union. Dissident Alexander Skobov was condemned to compulsory psychiatric treatment twice, in the 1970s and the 1980s [and is already being used by the Russian government to silence critics, e.g., against those to oppose Russia’s war in Ukraine].

[…]

One recent high-profile case was that of Viktoria Petrova, who was arrested in May 2022. She was accused of “spreading false information” about the Russian military in anti-war social media posts.

Activist Anush Panina went to support Petrova during her trial in St Petersburg.

“All of a sudden, the court announced that the hearings would be closed to the public, and sent her to a psychiatric hospital,” Panina remembered, speaking to Index from exile.

“It was outrageous and frightening.”

Panina suspects Petrova was punished for continuing to speak up while in detention and on trial. In her final statement to the court, Petrova said that Russia’s war in Ukraine was “a crime against humanity”.

[…]

  • CaptObviousEnglish
    4·
    12 hours ago

    It’s worth keeping in mind that this wasn’t exclusively a Soviet tactic. But yeah, Putin’s a Soviet through and through — and apparently not the good kind. This was likely foreseeable.

  • Skiluros@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    18·
    21 hours ago

    The economic model of russia changes with time (Tsarism/aristocracy, socialism and central planning, plutocratic oligarchy), but socio-political structure remains the same for some reason.

    I will note that several of the brave souls who came out to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia on the Red Square in 1968 also got sent to psychiatric institutions. And yet if you look at russian society more broadly, they continue to tolerate such behaviour from their government.

    Mind you, I am in no way implying that there is something inherent to russians that leads to these sort of outcomes. This is a ridiculous idea. This a matter of the choices that the russians make (for which they are responsible). Who could have thought voting for a KGB goon in 2000 would lead to such outcomes? Or supporting him again in 2004 when he shut down all independent TV?