‘You can always find a crime to charge someone with’ Russian leftist thinker Boris Kagarlitsky faces seven years in prison for ‘justifying terrorism.’ Meduza spoke with his daughter about his arrest.
On the morning of July 25, Boris Kagarlitsky, a political scientist, the editor-in-chief of the online publication Rabkor, and one of the most well-known leftist thinkers in Russia, was arrested on charges of “justifying terrorism.” Later that day, Kagarlitsky’s family found out he had been moved to Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic. There, the local FSB office opened a criminal case against him, presumably for a post he made in 2022 about the Crimean Bridge explosion. Kagarlitsky has reportedly been sent to a remand prison for a period of two months. If found guilty, he faces up to seven years in prison. Meduza spoke with his daughter Ksenia Kagarlitsky to learn more about the circumstances of his arrest.
“We [Boris Kagarlitsky’s family] knew something was wrong from the morning,” explains Ksenia, who said her father never showed up at the airport to pick up her mother. He had also stopped responding to phone calls, she said. The family was worried he could have suffered a heart attack or a stroke, but also that someone [from the security services] could have gotten him. “We found out [about the criminal case] from the news.”
“Of course, we were shocked [when we heard about the criminal case],” says Ksenia. “Boris was always careful about what he said and never said anything that could be classified as justifying terrorism.”
It wasn’t until the evening that they received news about his location from his lawyer [Sergey Yerokhov], who has helped Kagarlitsky on previous occasions. According to him, Kagarlitsky was in good spirits. He also said that some investigative measures were taken, though it’s not clear yet what exactly this involves. In regard to why the Komi Republic decided to open the criminal case specifically, the family also isn’t sure. Ksenia said, jokingly, that maybe someone high up decided that “the commies will be prosecuted in Komi.”
Though it’s difficult to explain the timing of the arrest, Ksenia says it could be to balance out the recent arrest of former commander of the self-proclaimed “LNR” Igor Strelkov. “When you arrest someone on the right, then you have to lock up someone on the left.” She adds, “but that’s a conspiracy theory.” Generally, she says, anyone who has some kind of media resources and continues to live in Russia is at risk. While Kagarlitsky spent ten days in prison in 2021, Ksenia says she hadn’t heard of any threats toward him since then.
“You can always find a crime to charge someone with. They can frame you for anything, come up with whichever charge, and connect it to whichever post,” remarks Ksenia.
In order to pay for Kagarlitsky lawyer’s to travel from Moscow to the Komi Republic several times per month, as well as for his legal services, his family have opened a donation fund. They’re also looking for [another] local lawyer to help with the case.
The last time Ksenia spoke with her father was on Saturday, when they discussed a livestream with the [the politician] Mikhail Pletnev that he had hosted earlier that day. Ksenia said he was in a good mood, as always.
As to why Kagarlitsky never left Russia despite holding openly anti-war positions and having spent over a year in Lefortovo Prison in the 1980s, Ksenia says, from her point of view, it’s similar to Navalny’s situation:
Navalny returned to Russia, where it was all very sad and there was nothing good waiting for him, because he believed that [a Russian] politician should be in Russia. Maybe that’s not the right comparison, but I think that it’s a similar situation. If you’re involved in politics in Russia, […] even just as an analyst, you should be in the country in order to stay in the loop.
When asked if Kagarlitsky discussed his previous stints in prison, Ksenia said he told her that he’s had trouble with every Russian administration. In Soviet times, he was imprisoned for “anti-Soviet propaganda,” and under Yeltsin, he was detained for opposing the then-president’s attempt to dissolve the Supreme Soviet. “Each time, there is of course stress, adrenaline, adventure. I think that’s the life of the political opposition in Russia.”
Interview by Kristina Safonova
Abridged summary by Sasha Slobodov
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