Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

Mikhail Kriger, smiling broadly even from the cage at his trial. Photo by Alesandr Astakhov

Mikhail Kriger of suburban Moscow, a member of Memorial Society, currently a political prisoner, seems like the nicest guy you'd ever want to know. I don't know him at all personally, and he appears to be a "friend of a friend" which is how he became a "frend" on Facebook. While middle-aged, I think of him as a "younger generation of dissidents" whom I never got to know in person because I have been banned from Russia now for over 20 years (Belarus, too) since repeated denial of my visas there. As I always say, I don't have to go to Russia, Russia comes to me, and Facebook is where week after week, I saw Mikhail Kriger's smiling face at various pickets and demonstrations.

Kriger at a demonstration wearing a cape in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

There is a kind of "three strikes and you're out" law in Russia about picketing, which is supposedly legal, and somehow Kriger racked up more than his share and the regime went after him. He was arrested and sentenced to 7 years of labour colony in 2023 for his anti-war posts on Facebook, which I remember well.

Recently, his daughter and Memorial published a letter received from him from prison where he actually writes that he has "no signs of depression". Remarkable! They had written him letters he had received. That's one aspect of modern Russian prison life that is better than the Soviet era when political prisoners were incognito, visits often arbitrarily cancelled, and letters non-existent. Of course, some letters still don't get through.

Here's an edited AI translation:

I’ve been in IK-5 [Labour Colony No. 5]  in the village of Naryshkino, Oryol Region, for over a year now. The conditions here are quite decent. I think my assessment is shaped by two factors:

I’m not a spoiled or demanding person, and I’ve been in various places. In my youth, I spent five years building the BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline).

 

I read quite a bit about the conditions for prisoners during my pre-prison days, including the horrors of the Stalinist era. So, when I involuntarily compare my current conditions to what I’ve read, I realize there’s probably little reason to feel sorry for me. Well, maybe just a little sympathy… ))

 

The food here is actually quite decent. At the very least, it’s much better than in the Moscow pre-trial detention centers. There, it always felt like the food wasn’t fit for human consumption. Here, in that regard, everything is fine.

 

As for hygiene, there’s more than enough for that here. Among other things, I’m a pensioner [age 65], so I don’t go to promka [shop work]. This means that on weekdays, when everyone else is working, I can afford to take a shower, for example, two or even three times a day. On top of that, my life now involves a lot of reading books, playing chess, reading mail, and writing responses to letters. It’s like a pretty nice sanatorium has taken me in at the twilight of my life. My relationships with my fellow inmates, so to speak, are quite normal.

 

As for what occupies my thoughts: one main concern is weighing on me now. It’s the war, which I currently consider the main battle of good versus evil. This is what all my thoughts revolve around. This event has caused a great deal of disappointment in humanity.

 

It’s striking how easily, it turns out, a massive “TV barrage” can change the “basic,” “factory” settings, if you will, of so many people regarding what is “good” and what is “bad.” People have stopped distinguishing between good and evil. And sometimes, that makes me feel melancholic. But I don’t detect any signs of depression, despair, or, God forbid, mental disorders in myself (if that’s even possible to determine “from the inside”). I embrace and love you all (I’m not afraid to use that word).

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Mikhail Krieger

 

XXX

Mikhail Kriger's Facebook page is still up, filled now with posts of support from his family and friends and copies of his letters from prison.

Here's what was posted on his own page on his birthday, February 24, 2024 , when in addition to calling out "Putin's Horde," he expressed unhappiness with with how Republican members of Congress were behaving, moving so slowly on Ukraine, singling out Speaker Mike Johnson:

Congressmen have gone on vacation. For two weeks. The commanders of the free world have abandoned their command post for two weeks. In truth, they abandoned it earlier. They’ve been “skipping” for months now. These two weeks, they’ve just formalized it in a way that seems respectable to them. Like, “We’re on vacation… we’re entitled to it…”

All this time, during their “absences,” our dear Ukraine is bleeding, defending freedom from Putin’s Horde. My brave compatriots are forced to ration shells and pay with their blood for the indecision, cowardice, laziness, and perhaps even the corruption (who can rule that out?) of the captains of the flagship of freedom.
And so, Avdiivka was lost. Yet, retaking lost territories and towns will require Ukrainians to pay an even higher price in blood. Even more of them will fall, defending the world of humans from orcs. From today’s Hitler, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

 

From the bottom of my heart, I would wish Mr. Mike Johnson that, if he ever has to lay in intensive care urgently awaiting surgery, his doctor tells him that unexpected guests have shown up. That he needs to go greet them, drive them home, sit down for a beer… I mean, how could you not?

 

Humanity has gone rotten.

No one should go to jail anywhere for speech of this nature that, in the parlance of US jurisprudence, does not involve "incitement of imminent violence."