LETTER: What does the ANC really think of Putin’s crackdown?
Putin’s actions echo those of Vorster, Malan and Botha
21 April 2023 - 14:56
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There are still a number of ANC leaders in office today who were themselves incarcerated unjustly for the “crime” of opposing an authoritarian regime. What do they think, I wonder, remembering the pain of their own unjust imprisonment on one hand, and offering supine loyalty to Vladimir Putin’s regime on the other?
It is hard to wrap one’s head around this mental and moral gymnastics. Alone, at night, they must surely see and feel what a monstrous betrayal this is. Kara-Murza is the latest and perhaps most well-known of a long list of Russian opposition figures imprisoned, in exile, or who have died suspiciously in custody. The parallels to the playbooks of Vorster, Malan and Botha are obvious.
Kara-Murza’s statement from the dock before being led away is worth reading in full, but this excerpt will be recited decades from now: “Not only do I not repent of any of this, I am proud of it. I am proud that Boris Nemtsov brought me into politics. And I hope that he is not ashamed of me. I subscribe to every word that I have spoken and every word of which I have been accused by this court.
“I blame myself for only one thing: that over the years of my political activity I have not managed to convince enough of my compatriots and enough politicians in the democratic countries of the danger that the current regime in the Kremlin poses for Russia and for the world. Today this is obvious to everyone, but at a terrible price — the price of war.”
Will the SA government register even a murmur of objection at the life imprisonment of political opponents? I doubt it. But as deafening as this silence is, it is drowned out by the voices of many more good people around the world who join in the chant “Free Vladimir Kara-Murza!”
Geordin Hill-Lewis
Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: What does the ANC really think of Putin’s crackdown?
Putin’s actions echo those of Vorster, Malan and Botha
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian dissident, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the “crime” of opposing his government (“Putin critic jailed for 25 years in Russian treason case”, April 17).
There are still a number of ANC leaders in office today who were themselves incarcerated unjustly for the “crime” of opposing an authoritarian regime. What do they think, I wonder, remembering the pain of their own unjust imprisonment on one hand, and offering supine loyalty to Vladimir Putin’s regime on the other?
It is hard to wrap one’s head around this mental and moral gymnastics. Alone, at night, they must surely see and feel what a monstrous betrayal this is. Kara-Murza is the latest and perhaps most well-known of a long list of Russian opposition figures imprisoned, in exile, or who have died suspiciously in custody. The parallels to the playbooks of Vorster, Malan and Botha are obvious.
Kara-Murza’s statement from the dock before being led away is worth reading in full, but this excerpt will be recited decades from now: “Not only do I not repent of any of this, I am proud of it. I am proud that Boris Nemtsov brought me into politics. And I hope that he is not ashamed of me. I subscribe to every word that I have spoken and every word of which I have been accused by this court.
“I blame myself for only one thing: that over the years of my political activity I have not managed to convince enough of my compatriots and enough politicians in the democratic countries of the danger that the current regime in the Kremlin poses for Russia and for the world. Today this is obvious to everyone, but at a terrible price — the price of war.”
Will the SA government register even a murmur of objection at the life imprisonment of political opponents? I doubt it. But as deafening as this silence is, it is drowned out by the voices of many more good people around the world who join in the chant “Free Vladimir Kara-Murza!”
Geordin Hill-Lewis
Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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