Oleg Kozlovsky - "People Are Waiting to Display Their Fear and Their Anger and Their Rage"

Search

Loading...

News

Latest News

Apr 22, 2014
by Alex Jackson
Oleg Kozlovsky - "People Are Waiting to Display Their Fear and Their Anger and Their Rage"

Seasoned political activist discusses why protests are so difficult in Russia, and why he will fight for the civil society, even in other countries Oleg Kozlovsky participates in group discussions at session 531 on Russian civil society

Salzburg Global Seminar prides itself on being a unique environment in which people can collectively argue, debate, collaborate and develop their projects, impacting on their future outlook. For Oleg Kozlovsky, an activist and Director of the Vision of Tomorrow Foundation, the first impact of having been at Salzburg Global for the Russian Civil Society Symposium was somewhat different: he was detained upon his arrival at Domodedovo Airport in Russia. He was questioned about his activities in Europe over the previous days and had to give fingerprints and copies of his passport before being released.

Fortunately for the seasoned activist, this is not the first time he has been detained, and he is prepared for such threats. “I was in Belarus, in Minsk back in 2006 just after the presidential elections happened. And I was arrested by the police and the officer took away my passport and said that if they arrested me again, then I would face criminal charges. Then they let me go. I got my passport back the next day. But at that moment, I had to choose whether to go to the protest camp where I knew they were going to establish posts, or to just go home and try not to get into more trouble. And at that time, I decided that although it’s not my war, it’s not my country, I shouldn’t have to submit to this type of treatment and this kind of blackmail. So I went to the protests and although I was still arrested four days later, no real investigation was made. It was a personally important moment when I had to decide in a matter of minutes, whether I would be willing to raise the stakes or not.”

This determination to continually call the bluffs of others has certainly served Kozlovsky well in his time as an activist. In addition to being arrested several times, Kozlovsky has previously found himself illegally drafted into the army and declared a persona non grata by the governments of Lukashenko (Belarus) and Yanukovich (Ukraine). However, Kozlovsky overcame obstacles from the very start of his ambitions as an activist.

“I was politicized even when I was in high school and I joined Amnesty International when I was 15. At that time, no one around me understood why I would do that. My friends would ask me, 'You’re probably going to become a deputy, a member of parliament or a public official?' and I said, 'No, it’s a human rights organisation, I don’t run for any offices.' And then they said: 'So then, you’re probably paid well or you can steal money?' And I said, 'No I invest my money and time!' Then they had two theories. Either I was stupid or I was lying. They couldn’t analyze how a person would do something just because it was good.”

It certainly is a snapshot of the Russian psychology towards activism. While the picture has adjusted slightly from Kozlovsky’s teenage years, Russian President Vladimir Putin is certainly playing on residual Soviet sentiment to stir patriotism that denounces any dissenting views, and dissuades Russians from participating in rallies and protests against the government. “Some people are just afraid of being activists. Not only because of changing laws that increased fines and penalties for instance for participation in protests, but also because of the propaganda that displays activists as agents of influence of foreign powers or corrupting people and those who are bribed. And this increases social and psychological pressure.”

Despite such constant infringement, Kozlovsky’s zeal has never waned. He has been the recipiant of an International Human Rights Award and Ion Ratiu Democracy Award for his work in the defence of human rights. His message is one of looking beyond the Kremlin party line, which instils a sense of fear that has culminated in an overwhelming social anxiety and apathy. 

“I think that for a majority of Russians, Russian history taught them several lessons and left several traces in their minds. One is that of imperialism in the sense of an all-encompassing state that is the progress of existence of this population. It is a notion of not state serving the citizens, but citizens serving the state for its greatness. This is a huge problem of our mentality and it explains for instance why a lot of people, even though they suffer government corruption or abuse, they still continue to rely on and support the regime because in their view, if you don’t support the state, no matter what condition it is in, it may just disintegrate. And without a state, they don’t see how they can exist. It is just unthinkable. It also explains why a lot of them support what happened in Crimea because they see it as a case where the state was powerful and strong and its greatness increased in a way, even though it doesn’t change people’s lives for the better.

“The other thing history taught Russians is that revolution is a horrible thing and here we have some contradiction because the Soviet Union, which many people still see as the high point of the Russian state, was created in a revolution. Yet for people revolution comes hand-in-hand with civil war. And when someone calls for change in a political regime, people are really afraid that it will lead to blood and devastation and war. And people prefer the lesser evil of having crooks and thieves in the government and having a corrupted political system to a reason of the country going to civil war or to just fall apart into several smaller countries.”

Yet, Kozlovsky remains hopeful, even against such a bleak outlook. His Vision of Tomorrow Foundation is an NGO that is dedicated to the strengthening of Russian civil society through training and supporting new generations of activists throughout Russia. Being involved in such work, Kozlovsky sees that there is still an appetite to whet when it comes to activism, whose time is yet to come. “We still see tens of thousands of people in Moscow in particular who participate in protests. We still see a growing number of new initiatives and projects and groups that organize around local issues and local projects and groups. So while less people are inclined to participate in street protests at the moment, which is actually quite rational, they look for other ways to remain active citizens.

“The regime has done very little to solve the problems that forced the people to protest. What they were doing instead was just increasing the level of fear in society. Because two years ago, fear was almost a non-existent factor, I mean fear of sanctions was almost a non-existent factor for protestors, they had apathy as the real problem. Now fear is the real problem. But people don’t begin to like the government because they are afraid of it. They will just wait for the right moment to display their fear and their anger and their rage.

“However, in some cases the regime was able to at least divide civil society.”

Here, Kozlovsky is cautious and concerned. With a weakened and unsupported civil society, the government is able to find strongholds in which to mount and raise its terror approach. He points to increasing difficulties for certain ethnic communities, women’s rights and, particularly, the LGBT community as evidence of scapegoating that distracts from real issues. He fears that such attacks are giving credence to government viewpoints, and are playing on middle class uncertainties and reservations. “All of this is still part of the general problem of a growing oppression, witch hunt, and the use of internal and external enemies as an excuse for any failures at home.” By providing ample ammunition for the general population, the government ensures enough splits that unity in action is not a coherent threat, for the meantime at least.

Kozlovsky was active in the protests of 2011 when Putin announced his intention to return the presidency. He believes that the same fire can be reignited in the Russian people given the right leverage; it may take decades of action, but given the right force (which the Kremlin is increasing daily), it could also take just months forewarns Kozlovsky. “In Russian civil society, a lot of people initially become engaged in different direct aid activism, including charities, volunteering, helping people directly who require this help. Then they begin to look at the root of these problems and they begin to engage with the state to change its policies and laws and practice and in the process of doing that, [the realize that] the government is at best not responsive and at worst considers them enemies.

“This leads many people who originally had ideas of cooperating with authorities, of working together and trying to do something positive, to political activism, to wanting an overhaul of the political system and a change of political regime. This is a process that, despite all the restrictions, will continue, because the political nature of the beast hasn’t changed.”  


Oleg Kozlovsky was a speaker at Session 531, "Russian Civil Society Symposium: Building Bridges to the Future", sponsored by the Yeltsin Foundation. For more information and interviews with other participants, please visit the session page: www.salzburgglobal.org/go/531