The governor of the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous Okrug, Natalia Komarovait’s not exactly an opponent, but even then a mess has gotten into it. During a meeting with voters he said that “we did not need” the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He was responding to a question about a topic that is not taboo: how poorly equipped the troops at the front were. Fast and furious, the local activist Yury Ryabtsev filed a petition asking the Ministry of Internal Affairs to launch a criminal investigation into Komarova.
The Russian regime requires total loyalty to what it insists on calling a “special military operation” in Ukraine, an invasion now in its 20th month. Russian authorities have opened thousands of lawsuits for discrediting the Russian military since lawmakers banned military operations by law. criticism of war days after Moscow’s troops entered Ukraine in February 2022. But so far Komarova has not received any official complaint.
Her office explained Monday that Komarova’s words were taken out of context and that she support the troops Russian. She claims that she meant that “Russia did not prepare for a war with the West and that she was not interested in a conflict with Ukraine.”
The governor knows that she cannot play with fire. Repeat offenders in discrediting the military risk being imprisoned up to seven years, while those convicted of “spreading false information” face up to 15 years in prison. Just in case, Komarova has insisted on the most victimist version of the invasion: “An economic and sanctions war was declared against us, and the Kiev regime is carrying out a physical extermination.”
The Russian war chorus currently functions as the country’s morality police: pointing and shaming. Ryabtsev has uploaded the ink on his social networks, hoping to provoke support: “The enemies who nest in the fifth column of the special military operation are waiting for their punishment“he said, according to the media Sibir.Realii.