It’s dangerous to be an opposition leader in Russia. That’s the sense many observers had after Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov posted a short video on his Instagram page that showed political opposition figures Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Kara-Murza in the crosshairs of a sniper’s rifle. (The video has since been removed by Instagram.) Both the timing and the figures depicted were likely picked to further intensify the frightening message: We are nearing the anniversary of the murder of prominent dissident Boris Nemtsov. And Kara-Murza, one of the figures seen in the crosshairs, was allegedly poisoned last May.
Given this backdrop, a series of Youtube videos being produced by Vladimir Putin’s political party might seem disconcerting as well. The animated shorts, generally under 2 minutes long, show Putin meeting with various government figures and business leaders, before offing them in spectacular fashion.
The animation style is quirky, reminiscent of Family Guy more than anything. At the beginning of the clips, Putin is shown disposing of Alexander Khoroshavin, the former governor of the Russian province of Sakhalin by dropping him through a trapdoor. Khoroshavin was removed from office on accusations that he had accepted bribes for awarding a contract to build a thermoelectric power plant.
Other figures include Vladimir Uiba, head of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency recently slammed by a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency or, more obscure, former Rostov-on-Don airport board director Gennady Yevstafyev, quietly removed from his position after allegations of corruption.
The inclusion of other figures is more perplexing, however. Viktor Chikalyuk, shown being ground to dust by an oversized circular saw, remains in office as natural resources minister in Karelia, a region known for its timber.
Taken one at a time, they seem like a teasing display of Putin’s corruption busting, a necessary PR play in light of allegations of corruption by Yuri Chaika, the prosecutor general and Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Although critics might claim that corruption infects even the uppermost levels of his government, the clips show that Putin himself will not stand for it. Corrupt men come to meet with the president and he dispatches them. Although some of the figures come to a violent end, it’s bloodless and off screen.
Perhaps the point of such ridicule is that it obviates the need for violence. In a January New York Times op-ed, Russia expert Mark Galeotti wrote of a “new world of covert war,” one aimed at destroying character without resorting to bullets. It’s a point he reiterated in a more recent piece as well. “Welcome to the theatre of tyranny,” he writes. “A style of governance which actively encourages the appearance of being tougher and nastier than it really is, and at the same time enthusiastically telegraphs that it could be tougher and nastier still.”
That’s the sense one gets watching the videos in series. Taken together, as they are in the following video, compiled by Russian journalist Alisa Ivanitskaya, Putin appears more of a fickle friend, removing unsuspecting figures come to ask a favor of him. Rather than a corruption buster, he comes across as, frankly, a tyrant.
While not the message Putin necessarily wants to present, it’s one that’s easy to see. The shorts have been released at a period when the Russian government is increasingly prepared to use force to put down uprisings. A bill approved by the Duma in December would allow police to open fire on crowds, including, in certain circumstances, women and children. The Moscow Times writes that the “bill proposes to give officers the power to use firearms against crowds of people to prevent acts of terror.” However, the distinction that police should not fire on women who appear to be pregnant is small comfort.
It seems that while the government might wish to present its violence as cartoonish, it remains unafraid of resorting to violence. The coarser, harsher image presented by Kadyrov may indeed be the more accurate one.
