Simon Pirani edited Voices Against Putin’s War. He is honorary professor at the University of Durham and the author of books on Russia and Ukraine, and energy systems. He blogs at People and Nature.
In Russia and occupied Ukraine, many thousands of civilians have been jailed or forcibly disappeared for speaking out against the invasion. The numbers reflect a crackdown on dissent worse than at any point since the 1950s.
Vladimir Putin claims to be defending populations in the Donbas. In fact, the Kremlin-controlled statelets there are dominated by military rule and repression of organized labor — a troubling indicator of the future Putin has in store for neighboring regions.