"Political Prisoners" In Russia: Is Pardoning Them a Political Stunt?

QUESTION (from idebate.org, Alex Helling):

Russia is considering pardons and amnesties for many of the high profile cases that have brought criticism from the west such as Pussy Riot and Khodorkovsky. After a very successful year on the global stage where Putin has succeeded in facing down the United States on Syria and the win Ukraine over to his side in competition with the European Union Vladimir Putin is showing a conciliatory side – or possibly is being magnanimous in victory.

There have been several high profile cases where the Russian state has jailed people when that westerners have often considered to be unfair; Khordorkovsky is often considered to have been imprisoned due to his wealth and beginning to looking like a viable opposition leader – the west has never really bought the idea that he was somehow more corrupt than other oligarchs. More recently Pussy Riot highlighted the issue of freedom of speech in Russia. And only this year Greenpeace activists attempting to highlight oil drilling in the arctic were detained after an assault by the Russian military.

 Now there is to be an amnesty as a part of the celebrations for the 20^th anniversary of the adoption of the Russian constitution. The amnesty will pardon non-violent first time offenders which will apply both to the Greenpeace activists who clearly have no criminal record in Russia as they are from outside the country as well as the members of Pussy Riot who are still in jail as a result of their stunt in Moscow’s cathedral of Christ the Savior with a song calling for Putin’s removal from power. Putin points out that the amnesty was not specifically aimed at either of these two cause celebres.

Putin wrote:

"It is neither linked to Greenpeace, nor this group [Pussy Riot]. I was not sorry that they ended up behind bars. I was sorry that they were engaged in such disgraceful behavior, which in my view was degrading to the dignity of women. They went beyond all boundaries "

The BBC says it covers “at least 20,000 prisoners, including minors, invalids, veterans, pregnant women, and mothers.” However Russia’s Human Rights Council estimates that the amnesty will free less than 1500 prisoners out of a prison population of 700,000 making it rather fortuitous that it covers many of the best known cases outside the country.

If Pussy riot and the Greenpeace activists being freed is merely coincidence then one pardon does appear to be intentional. Khodorkovsky’s current jail term is not his first so he is not eligible for this amnesty yet Putin has announced in his annual news conference that he will be pardoned. The reasoning is Khodorkovsky

Putin wrote:

"has already spent more than 10 years in prison, this is a serious punishment. He is citing humanitarian circumstances, his mother is ill, and I think this is grounds for making a decision, and a decree about his pardon will be signed in the nearest future."

yet Khodorkovsky’s legal team know of no request for clemency leading to the supposition that Putin may simply have decided that now is a good time.

Many will consider that the imprisonment of all of these groups was political, and therefore their being freed must also be political. It is notable that the winter Olympics in Sochi are just around the corner; taking place in February of next year. Already leaders of major countries are declaring that they will not attend such as Francois Hollande of France and German President Joachim Gauk saying they would boycott the games  while US president Obama has been a bit more ambiguous about his motivations simply saying that there scheduling difficulties meaning he cannot attend. Putin might therefore be calculating that by showing a willingness to free those who are considered to be the opposition he might pre-empt a more general boycott.

Debatabase debate ‘This House believes the imprisoned members of pussy riot should be considered political prisoners’ http://freespeechdebate.idebate.org/debatabase/debates/freespeechdebate/house-believes-imprisoned-members-pussy-riot-should-be-considered-polit

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/18/us-russia-greenpeace-amnesty-idUKBRE9BH0FO20131218

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25433426

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/khodorkovsky-to-be-pardoned-putin-says/491892.html#ixzz2nwPiA0sk

ANSWER FROM ME:

It is obviously a political stunt, and the question itself is unnecessary.  The women, Greenpeace and Khordorkovsky are different people with different crimes to their names, thus they may or may not all be political prisoners.

Pussy Riot, in my opinion, deserves punishment. As much as they may try and deny that they were trying to inflict any sort of hatred with their performances, they obviously were. The simple fact that their performance was staged at a church demonstrates that. Even though I am not religious myself, it is clear to see that they were degrading religion by using The Virgin’s name and parodying a holy prayer.  Though I believe the punishment was over exaggerated and that it was in part fuelled by the subject matter and the fact that they were opposing the state, I still do not believe that they should be considered political prisoners. Western organizations like Amnesty International have reason to deem the Pussy Riot performers as political prisoners. Since they do not support Putin’s regime, it is in their interest to call the women political prisoners and attract negative attention to Putin’s government.  Try to disregard the media, which are constantly telling us that these women are not political prisoners, and ask yourself if they did indeed commit some sort of crime. Even in a democratic state, they did. They firstly disturbed the peace by screaming and attracting attention in public, they secondly were blasphemous, by degrading the name of what is holy to people, at a holy place. They offended a lot of people, which was wrong.

What Greenpeace did was not that bad, and I don't agree with the decision to jail them. I am not informed about Khordorkovsky and I thus cannot make statements about him. 

There are different forms of protest and the form they did was not the most potent. It degraded the women themselves and something holy. They could’ve performed protest without degrading something holy.

Truthfully, they probably wouldn’t have received such a harsh punishment had they protested the opposition, but that is the same in all places, even in the West.  The most basic form of ruling states that the opposition needs to be eliminated; it is the goal of all leaders. Naturally, you want more supporters and fewer opponents, so it makes sense that Putin wanted to get rid of them.

They weren’t jailed politically, but because the West made their jailing political, the release will be political. Whether or not Putin is being magnanimous in having such a successful year politically, or if he simply wants to do the best for his country by releasing the women and giving incentive for western leaders to attend Sochi, is questionable.