Russia: Soviet-era dissident sentenced to 16 years in prison for rejecting war

Under Vladimir Putin, Russia is returning to the undemocratic practices of the Soviet dictatorship.

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A dissident who spent years in prison for opposing the Soviet dictatorship

Aleksandr Skobov was born in St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) in 1957. He trained as a historian at Leningrad State University. In 1976, while still a student, he began participating in propaganda activities against the Soviet communist dictatorship. Skobov, a socialist in ideology, was one of the activists of the left-wing democratic opposition to that dictatorship.

Skobov was first arrested in October 1978 for his involvement in the publication of an opposition magazine called "Perspektyvy" (Perspectives). He spent six months in a KGB prison, the USSR's secret police, and was then sentenced to forced psychiatric treatment, a standard Soviet measure against political dissidents, who were treated as insane in an attempt to discredit them in the eyes of society. Released in 1981, he was arrested again in 1982 and sent to a psychiatric hospital for "anti-Soviet propaganda." He remained in prison until 1987, at the beginning of Mikhail Gorbachev's liberalization period.

He was arrested for rejecting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Skobov participated in the anti-Chechen War movement (1994–1996). A few years later, he ran for the center-left Yabluko party. Skobov has been a critic of Putin's regime for many years. In 2014, he also opposed Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, a region of Ukraine. The Kremlin classified him as a "foreign agent." That same year, he was attacked by two men armed with knives.

In 2022, Skobov expressed his rejection of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Because of his rejection of the war launched by the Putin regime, he was arrested in April 2024 and charged with "promoting terrorism". In August of that year, the Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta published a letter of Skobov sent from prison, in which he stated the following:

I belong to the generation of Soviet dissident political prisoners. Despite their small number, they became an important historical phenomenon. They became a symbol of human resistance to violence. They influenced the international agenda.

And although I've always been a "black sheep" in this generation for being "red," for me, belonging to it is the most important thing in life. There were different people there: good and not so good, strong and weak. There was a "sordid side," as always happens at any opposition "meeting." But its face was composed of large-scale personalities who became the standard of strength and morality.

They've all passed away. Before, we were few, now only a few remain. Our generation is in its historical place for completely natural reasons. And in the context of a new historical drama that was unfolding, it found itself completely on the sidelines.

They didn't bother us for a long time. They say they'll die alone. Or they'll go away and live out the rest of their days on the political and moral capital they once acquired (quite rightly so). The blow fell on other people, most of them much younger.

I'm skeptical of pompous phrases about the transfer of traditions and experiences. In reality, this mechanism has always worked extremely poorly. Each new generation prefers to learn its own lessons. But I want those young people who took the hit to know that the last Soviet dissidents stood by them, were with them, and shared their journey with them.

By then, there were already more than 1,500 political prisoners in Russia for opposing the war. Many of them are young people, the young people Skobov was referring to. Many other young people have chosen to leave their country, not only because of the lack of freedoms, but also to avoid the recruitment campaigns with which the now elderly Putin fuels his carnage in Ukraine, destroying an entire generation.

Despite being a civilian, a military court has sentenced him to 16 years in prison.

As reported yesterday by the British newspaper The Guardian, Skobov was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his anti-war views on Friday. Despite being a civilian, his sentence was handed down by a military tribunal. Skobov is now 67 years old and suffers from diabetes, hepatitis C, bronchial asthma, and glaucoma, so this sentence, for him, is effectively a life sentence. Pjotr ​​Sauer, the author of the Guardian article, notes:

The sentence Skobov was given on Friday was extreme even by the already-repressive standards of today’s Russia. Observers said it highlighted how modern Russia had surpassed the scale of repression seen during the post-Stalin Soviet era.

Skobov's courageous plea before the military tribunal

The British newspaper notes that before hearing his sentence, Skobov reiterated his condemnation of the war in Ukraine and told the court:

Today I will be asked whether I plead guilty. Well, I am the one making the accusation here! I accuse the stinking corpse of a regime and the ruling Putin clique of preparing, unleashing, and waging an aggressive war, of committing war crimes in Ukraine, of political terror in Russia, and of the moral corruption of my people.

I hold different ideological positions than that Russian dissident, but we are both driven by the defense of democracy. Therefore, I want to express my support for Skobov and my admiration for the courage he has shown over the years, first opposing the Soviet dictatorship and now also Putin's dictatorship. As has happened before in history, this tyrannical regime will fall, and both Putin and his accomplices will be remembered with disgust and shame, while brave people like Skobov will be recognized as heroes, as those who spoke out against oppression when doing so entailed great risk and while the majority remained silent out of fear.

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Photo: SOTAvision.