Russia returns to Stalin-style informing

RUSSIANS are being asked to denounce people who speak out against Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine, in echoes of the darker days of the Soviet Union.

Telephone hotlines, websites and channels on the Telegram messaging service have been set up so that “good citizens” can inform on “traitors” among their friends, neighbours and colleagues.

The atmosphere has been likened to the years of fear under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who came to power 100 years ago today, and encouraged people to inform on others for not holding strident enough pro-Communist views.

A 22-year-old Russian shop assistant told The Sunday Telegraph she had spent 24 hours in a prison cell after expressing anti-war views to a stranger while on a night out in a Moscow bar.

“It was just chit chat,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous. “He got very upset that we didn’t share his opinion and started arguing, saying that Putin and the war were absolutely right.”

The man was thrown out, but an hour later, police arrived and the woman and her friends were told to go outside. “They had come for us,” she said.

The woman was kept in a cell overnight and discharged with a fine for “discrediting the Russian armed forces”.

OVD-Info, a Russian human rights group, said others reported to authorities included a woman in Siberia who had tied yellow and blue ribbons to a tree in her garden, a Moscovite who had hung a Ukrainian flag in his window and a regional police officer overheard complaining about the war.

Pupils at a school in Penza, central Russia, secretly taped their teacher making anti-war comments and denounced her to the police.

“In Russia now, it is like 1937: people are scared and informing on each other,” said Alexandra Baeva, head of the legal department at OVD-Info.

The Kremlin has banned all dissent against what it is describing as a rescue mission to free Ukrainians from their Nazi leaders. It has outlawed references to “war”, calling it a “special operation”.

Several regions of Russia are sending the public telephone texts with instructions on how to denounce people.

Yesterday, Russian police detained at least 176 people during protests in 14 cities against the war in Ukraine, according to OVD-Info.

Police escorted away people sitting on park benches or just standing around without explaining the reasons for the detention, an eyewitness said.

‘He got very upset, saying that Putin and the war were absolutely right. An hour later the police came for us’