The Closing of Russia

Crimean train derailment, war on the rails

Two things are happening at the moment. The first is that Russia sees more train derailments within the Federation and near the front lines. The second is the arrest of members of the opposition. Neither is a surprise, and they are connected. These are also coming within an environment where the Russian army is failing to perform.

So let’s deal with the opposition first. This is via MO:

The oppositionists who remained in the Russian Federation are being searched allegedly because of their connection with the “terrorist” Ponomarev. Versions of the security forces in the pro-government media are filled with fakes

According to RIA Novosti, searches are taking place in five regions. In Moscow, the security forces came to the politician and associate professor of Moscow State University Mikhail Lobanov, former mundeps from Yabloko Galina Filchenko and Nodari Khananashvili, and journalist Alexander Kalinin. The pro-government media call them associates of politician Ilya Ponomarev and point to their participation in the “Congress of People’s Deputies” organized by Ponomarev. There is a lot of untruth in these reports, their acquaintances and interlocutors in the opposition told MO.

🔹 Lobanov denies any connection with Ponomarev. A message appeared on Lobanov’s Telegram channel stating that the politician “does not know and does not have any contacts at all with Ponomarev, whose criminal case is used by the security forces to legalize searches.” This is the second search at Lobanov’s place because of the alleged connection with Ponomarev.

🔹“I don’t know Lobanov,” Ponomarev confirmed in an interview with MO, “I don’t understand who they come to and on what basis. Someone participated earlier in the Congress, someone did not at all. I am also not familiar with Khanashvili, he was on the YouTube channel “February Morning”, but this does not say anything about his connection with the Congress.”

🔹 Filchenko and Khananashvili are not members of the Yabloko party, contrary to pro-government media reports. “They were municipal deputies from us in previous years in the Tverskoy and Akademichesky districts of Moscow,” said Kirill Goncharov, deputy chairman of the Moscow branch of Yabloko, “Such news is alarming, let’s hope that this will not end in criminal cases.”