Let’s Talk Torture

This is a subject that most of us tend to avoid. However, the reaction of a society to torture tells us a lot about that society. After the events in Abu Graib came out, Americans, not everyone, but more than a few, were horrified.

Chiefly, there were both army investigations and a US Senate investigation. We can all speak about how that was done. Or how low cogs in the machine paid most of the price. But in general, the public reacted as Democratic societies do. We recoiled in horror. Yes, the pictures of that infamy will live in horror. It also broke a pattern in the long-standing treatment of prisoners of war. One reason the army threw the book at some people.

I am prefacing this piece with that reaction because, after the assault on the Crocus City Hall, Russia was publicly involved in quite a bit of torture to extract confessions.

I will also have to put a trigger warning here. Some of the descriptions of torture are very descriptive. So, if the subject tends to trigger you, stop reading now. However, I am not including the worst photos. Only a single screen cap via Twitter, with the least triggering image. Nor is this a defense of ISIS. But I hope we all agree torture has no place in civilized societies. And I will add this. It’s not an exception in Russia. Units do this for fun with POWs as well.

So, let’s dive in using Russian channels. Let’s start with. the more matter of factly Volyamedia:

Torture of terrorism suspects ‘consolidates society’

On March 23–25, z and propaganda TG channels published videos of Tajik citizens detained in the Bryansk region, whom Russian authorities accuse of committing a terrorist attack in Crocus. One had his ear cut off, the other was given an electric shock to the genitals. The third was brought to court in an unconscious state.

All the detainees were severely beaten; one, judging by their appearance, had a broken jaw (in the video from the first interrogation, the jaw was still intact).

Propagandists, such as the Shot channel, publish interviews with Russians who praise the security forces for their quality work, call them “our guys” and say that they themselves would have acted more harshly, and that the security forces treated the detainees “like human beings.”

We know very well how the “law enforcement” system in the Russian Federation works. We know that torture is the norm not only in colonies and in combat zones, but also in the work of the Investigative Committee, the FSB, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But previously, videos or photos of torture were not posted online by the security forces themselves.

“Field interrogation or interrogation using special means is a common practice. She was, is and will be in the organs. And with the cops, and in the office, and with the soldiers. But this was not advertised. In certain circumstances, a professional officer must be able to quickly obtain testimony from a detainee, especially one detained for terrorism. To do this, he does not have to cut his ears, fingers or tear his nails, shove something in his ass or break his jaw. You have to be able to work with a client so that he breaks down before he becomes a piece of meat. What works for many is just a clear explanation that they are now just a meat carcass. People break down. All. Torture is usually a stinking business if you don’t know how to work. Those who detained these Tajiks do not know how to work, they are just stupid sadists,” says an employee of the 2nd service of the FSB of the Russian Federation, who previously served in the Russian Armed Forces during the Second Chechen War and in Syria.

The arrest in the Bryansk region was carried out by officers of the FSB Directorate for the Bryansk Region, the DSRG “Rusich” (whose fighter cut off his ear) and the “Akhmat” unit. Moscow colleagues assess their actions as extremely unprofessional. Organizing an ambush on a car and letting several passengers escape into the forest, and then putting on a bloody performance with cutting off ears on camera — this is the style of armed gopniks.

The military also shares the same opinion. DSRG “Rusich” and “Akhmat”, according to sources in the RF Armed Forces, repeatedly tortured prisoners of war and civilians, not to obtain any information, but just for fun.

The proud demonstration of torture in TG channels, according to our interlocutor at the FSB, is a bad sign. According to him, such measures of influence in the near future may be, if not legalized, then allowed for widespread use. “Every redneck will start cutting up suspects, shocking them, trying everything he saw in the movies. This will definitely cause a backlash. They will also cut us into belts,” said an employee of the 2nd service.

A source in the presidential administration believes that the topic of torture of detained Tajiks was deliberately picked up and will continue to be promoted by the media. “Nobody gave these assholes orders to cut their ears. But this can now be used to solve several problems at once. Show citizens that our state is harsh, not like Europe, it really punishes, and since it punishes cruelly, it protects well. Please note that there is not a single resignation in the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the FSB after the disastrous work at Crocus, because the whole situation is presented as a success, and not as a failure. Another problem that this topic of torture solves is a clear signal to society. If you are with us, you will torture yourself or watch others being tortured. If you are against us, they will torture you, accompanied by the approving roar of your neighbors. Cruelty consolidates a cowardly society,” says an AP employee.

The last paragraph struck me as the source of this practice. It’s about sending signals to regular citizens. If you step out of line, we will break your fingers and jaws and cut your ears off. Oh we don’t care if you are innocent, You will admit to anything we charge you with, or die in the process.

You might think Russia is a modern state. It’s not. And what you are reading above is a long echo from the Mongol period. Yes, they did conquer by force of arms. They kept conquered peoples under the control of local rulers. And torture was one of the means they used.

Russians internalized some of those practices exceptionally well. Under Ivan the Terrible, Muscovy was not only able to break free, but she also continued these practices.

Granted, the rest of medieval Europe could have been nicer precisely then. The liberal order and ideas of human rights were centuries in the future. This is the comment from Gulagu.Net regarding this:

Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin reported to Putin on the first results of the investigation into the terrorist attack on March 22 at Crocus City Hall: 2 AK-74 assault rifles, 28 magazines, more than 500 cartridges, bottles with gasoline residues were seized. Bastrykin also reported on more than 200 searches, inspections and seizures, as well as on the appointment of 90 forensic examinations. About the torture of detainees, forcing them to give the “necessary” testimony, about a cut off ear, a gouged out eye and electric shock to the genitals — that is, about particularly serious malfeasance committed by FSB and special services officers against detainees, Bastrykin decided not to tell Putin anything . Apparently, so as not to upset an old comrade.

We reiterate the need to initiate the GVSU and the Directorate of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia to investigate crimes committed by employees of the FSB and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation of criminal cases provided for in Part 4 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code, Part 5 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code, Part 4 of Article 302 of the Criminal Code on facts of torture, committed on 03/23/24 in relation to Mirzoev Dalerjon Barotovich, Rachabalizod Saidakrami Murodali (his right ear was cut off after detention), Shamsidin Fariduni (a small child, registered in Krasnogorsk, employed at a factory in Podolsk, tortured with electric shock by attaching terminals to his genitals), Muhammadsobir Fayzov (in a wheelchair , 19 years old, kidneys broken, in serious condition). The sadists who committed these especially serious crimes discredited the investigation and the testimony given by the detainees. After this, no court will accept this testimony, since it was obtained in gross violation of the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation under torture and will probably lead the investigation to a dead end and make it impossible to establish all the circumstances of the case.

We condemn both the terrorist attack and torture. Neither one nor the other can be approved by civilized people who respect law and law. The state — the Russian Federation — despite the prohibition of torture in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, continues to use torture and approve of its use. This is shameful for Russia and Russians in the 21st century.

We also insist on initiating a criminal case on the grounds of crimes provided for in Part 2 of Article 119 of the Criminal Code (threat of murder) and Article 30 of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation against Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev in connection with his published threats to kill the above-mentioned citizens of Tajikistan. Currently Medvedev D.A. By virtue of the powers of the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, while remaining at large, he can continue to engage in criminal activities and realize his criminal intent as part of a criminal group together with a number of unscrupulous employees of the FSB and the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, who are in a position dependent on him. We believe it is advisable to organize criminal prosecution and take D.A. Medvedev. into custody in order to suppress his illegal activities.

Now, let’s be honest. I don’t expect the Russian state to initiate any cases against any of the security services personnel. The point of the exercise is a reign of terror. A legal order is not something that exists in Russia.

This brings me to migration and the fact that Russia has been weaponizing borders for at least ten years. This is not from a MAGA channel, but it might as well be:

So it begins. Looks like Russia declared a war on migrants.

From the Sorok Sorokovykh movement:

“The economic migration of the consumer society of recent decades in Russia is a time bomb, which finally exploded yesterday. And knowing the handwriting of the CIA and Mi6, we can state that if our state does not urgently begin to strictly regulate migration, they will begin to activate such cells.”

Statement from the ‘For Family’ party:

“The best means of combating migration and, as a consequence, crime and terrorism is a strong, multi-generational, large family of the Russian people and other indigenous peoples of Russia. Migration comes to where we are dying out. Therefore, the time has come to realize this and revive our thousand-year-old Russia with its thousand-year-old traditional spiritual and moral values.”

Russian historian Mikhail Smolin about migrants:

“The terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall showed how easily Islamists who came to our country, in their words, supposedly driving Russian citizens in taxis, become, under the influence of propaganda and money, insane terrorist killers. When some people offer everyone half a million rubles, they are easily co-opted and agree, instead of transporting them, to engage in the mass murder of “infidel” citizens of the Russian Federation.

They carry out this brutal execution of ordinary Russian people. In their minds, nothing prevented them from enjoying the murder of the Russian population. The radical cultural and religious difference between the Central Asian and Russian perception of the surrounding world was at work.

There is no prohibition on killing Russian people of other faiths, strangers, and people who are not similar to them. This is not banal criminality with its immoral permissiveness, but real barbaric savagery that our country-civilization has encountered.

The agreement with Tajikistan on dual citizenship and the opportunity for Tajiks to move entire villages to Russia must be immediately terminated. And send all those who received Russian citizenship to their homeland, which separated from us at one time.

It is absolutely necessary to sharply reduce migration from these areas and tighten migration policy in general. There should not be any families brought by labor migrants to Russia here. There should be no issuance of Russian citizenship. No schools in Russia filled with migrants, medical institutions, etc.”

From Russian TG channel ‘Sons of Monarchy”: “All terrorists have families and children. We need to see what benefits they received from Russia? Maternity payouts? Free kindergarten or school, payments to large families?

And now a very inconvenient question for multinationals will appear. Why are we spending our social benefits on migrants, if the sermons of Islamists and half a million rubles from Khokhols can instantly outweigh all the benefits that Russia gave them?

Soft power is when you seek bonuses for Russia from other countries and peoples. And when you give your money to other countries and peoples free of charge, it is called tribute.

The loyalty of others is gained by strength, not by patience. Especially in the East.”

There is hate taking shape in the air. White Russians have not trusted Muslims for decades. While Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan were once republics within the Soviet Union, Ramzan Kadyrov had better start paying attention. Because the hate for Muslims is c9ming, as well as repression.

This brings me to the other minority that could face direct consequences for this. I am talking of Russian Jews. The names of the people charged are in this post. I am not sure they are Jewish. but at least two names had my hair stand on end. And if I am making that connection, so are Russians:

The Investigative Committee asks to arrest three more defendants in the case of the terrorist attack in Crocus

The court scheduled a hearing for the arrest of Dilovar Islomov, Aminchon Islomov and Isroil Islomov.

The Investigative Committee claims that the accused in the terrorist attack case, Shamsidin Fariduni, allegedly involved Dilovar and Aminchon in criminal activities in January and March of this year. What does their father Isroil have to do with it? It is unknown.

Dilovar Islomov is the seller of the white Renault in which the terrorists arrived at Crocus.

I predict things will get more complicated for Russian Jews. At least one of these names is Jewish: Isroil, Israel. It’s so close to the Yiddish pronunciation that it made my hair stand on end. I don’t think that’s a common Muslim name, but that might be my bias.

So we may be seeing progroms against both populations as time moves on. We had an actual progrom after October 7 in Dagestan. And this fits a long pattern of minority persecution in Russia.

In ironic news, ISIS has declared an open season on Russia after it tortured its operatives. I say ironic because ISIS is not entirely known for following the kind of rights in a criminal court given in Western states. So there is that.

Now, I must note that at this point, a segment of Russians doubts the official story. Given the history of Ryazan sugar and the FSB’s involvement in terror attacks starting in 1999, this is hardly shocking. Hours after the event, people expressed skepticism about any official story.

It’s also important to emphasize that Russia is not just blaming Ukraine for this. That is hardly surprising. Terror is how they got the buy-in for the second Chechen war. They are also blaming us. And the screws are already tightening in Russia as well:

In Samara, environmental activist, winner of the regional stage of the “Young Entrepreneur of 2020” competition, Andrei Zhvakin, died. After the start of the war, Andrei opposed the war, held anti-war pickets and did everything possible to stop this military aggression against Ukraine. According to the FSB, Andrei allegedly, on instructions from the RDK, was preparing a terrorist attack in Samara. There is no reason to trust the version of the security officers. On the contrary, the photos and videos they uploaded to the public indicate that Andrei could have become one of the first victims of the campaign to tighten the screws and murder anti-war activists and oppositionists under the guise of anti-terrorism operations. The video from the FSB does not prove anything, except that one of the FSB officers filmed other special forces officers running with machine guns without shields and helmets and without obvious fear for their lives, flagrantly violating all instructions for special forces actions and close combat tactics. Before the explosion, Andrei’s voice is not heard and there is reason to believe that he was blown up in an already unconscious state. FSB operatives and special forces had dozens of options to detain Andrei alive, but they chose this vile option of reprisal and staging the alleged capture of a terrorist. Footage of special forces in helmets was filmed after the murder of Zhvakin in the daytime.

Shameful pages of the dirty history of Putin’s dictatorship.

So be aware of all these dynamics as you watch these events unfold. Will Russia use this to attack the West? I believe it’s one of the many reasons they are using it to build a case for war against NATO.