by SUZI WEISSMAN
Sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, a prominent Russian Marxist imprisoned by Vladimir Putin’s government on false charges, has had his appeal denied. He deserves our solidarity.
Once again Boris Kagarlitsky requires our solidarity.
On June 5, 2024 the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber rejected Boris Kagarlitsky’s appeal against his five year prison sentence for “justifying terrorism.” Kagarlitsky must now remain confined to a penal colony in Torzhok, some 155 miles northwest of Moscow. The decision was unjust, but not unexpected, and will be contested.
Kagarlitsky was initially jailed in July 2023 and held for nearly five months in pretrial detention. He was charged with “justifying terrorism” for ironic remarks he made on his social media channel after the 2022 explosion on the Crimean Bridge. In December 2023, a military court freed him after imposing a fine. But in February 2024, in an unexpected appeal trial, prosecutors overturned the December verdict, citing excessive leniency.
During the June 5 appeal hearing, Kagarlitsky said naming the offending YouTube video “Explosive Congratulations for Mostik the Cat” — a reference to a stray cat that lived on the Crimea bridge, was “an extremely unfortunate joke.” But he argued that his jail term was disproportionate to the offense. Kagarlitsky’s attorney plans to appeal the verdict with Russia’s Constitutional Court on the grounds that his client received excessive punishment.
The appeal court judges refused to change Kagarlitsky’s sentence, despite an appeal from thirty-seven international political figures and intellectuals, including Jeremy Corbyn, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and Yanis Varoufakis, as well as Spanish government ministers and members of parliament from France, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium, and Brazil. An international petition demanding Kagarlitsky’s freedom has collected more than eighteen thousand signatures.
Spurred by the international campaign to free Boris, academic positions were secured for Kagarlitsky from top universities in Brazil and South Africa. It was hoped that Moscow might be induced to free him if he agreed he leave the country. But at the June 5 hearing, the judge refused to allow the official letters of appointment from the deans, rectors, and presidents of these universities, stating they were not relevant to the case. The judicial panel, however, decided to include the documents in the record.
For the time being Kagarlitsky is sitting in the gulag-period penal colony in Torzhok. Because of his age, sixty-five, Kagarlitsky is housed with other pensioners and is not required to work. But the conditions in this colony are inferior to those he had in pretrial detention in the Komi Republic. That was apparent when Kagarlitsky appeared in the courtroom through video link from Torzhok. He has lost weight and appeared haggard.
The judge’s decision ignored basic democratic and legal rights. It was simply a decision handed down in advance from the regime, determined to crush domestic opposition to the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine. It represents a gross but entirely deliberate miscarriage of justice.
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