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Street scene in Moscow: in the background, ruler Putin during his state of the nation speech on February 29, 2024
Photo: Maxim Shemetov / REUTERS
"They were rewriting history, degrading Russian identity, changing the cultural code - creating a sense of guilt for the actions of their ancestors."
This is what a member of the State Duma wrote this week: Andrei Lugovoi.
And further: "Its goal is to overthrow the current political system in Russia, reporting on censorship-free views and ideas with the help of culture, art and human values."
He wrote this on the messenger service Telegram.
He wrote it about my colleagues and me.
And at the end of his social media post, he promised: "They will be held accountable under Russian law for harming and betraying the country."
When a man like Andrei Lugovoi writes about punishment "according to Russian law," I feel uncomfortable.
Finally, this man became famous in 2006 when the British authorities accused him of murdering Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer who was actively exposing crimes by the Russian authorities.
Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium in London - the Russian security services considered him a "traitor".
Lugovoi was never brought to trial.
Instead, the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party nominated him for election to the Russian parliament, the State Duma, of which Lugovoi has been a deputy ever since.
And in recent months, Lugovoi has become extremely active.
It represents the retaliation that threatens Russian cultural workers who left the country after the start of the war and are fighting against Putin's regime from abroad.
The symbol for this is the ice pick.
The ice pick as a symbol for political assassinations
The “ice pick” joke is popular in the Russian propaganda media.
The ice pick was the weapon used by Soviet agent Ramón Mercader to kill Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1940.
The ice pick is a symbol of political assassination, and Russian authorities and propaganda are proud to use it.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev recently called for the murder of "villains from the literary scene who are clamoring for the ice pick of the new Ramón Mercader."
But it is Lugovoi – our modern-day Ramón Mercader – who is leading this movement to intimidate Putin's departed opponents.
In January this year he proposed passing a law depriving all "traitors" of their property.
"If you publicly call for a violation of the country's national security, you should not only go to prison for a while, but also lose your apartment, your house, your money and any other property you have the right to use," he said Lugovoi in front of the State Duma.
He described the future of the political emigrants as follows: »Sitting there after you have fled the country is of course easy and pleasant.
But we will not allow this situation to happen.
Anyone who tries to harm their homeland, their country and its citizens will lose everything and die like a dead dog there, outside our country.
At the beginning of February he continued his war against literature (apparently following Medvedev).
»I personally know places where books are sold by foreign agents and their accomplices.
We have to organize a raid and show how this trade is stopped
can and should be," said Lugovoi.
Among the Russian citizens classified as "foreign agents" are four authors whose books were recently sold in all Russian bookstores and were considered bestsellers: Boris Akunin, Dmitry Bykov, Dmitry Glukhovsky and me.
According to my sources close to the presidential administration, the anger of the authorities is directed primarily at those authors who spoke out on this topic and wrote new books after the Russian attack on Ukraine.
There are only two such authors: Dmitry Bykov wrote the book VZ about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and I wrote the book “War and Punishment.
“How Russia Destroyed Ukraine”.
Shortly after Lugovoi's statement, I learned that his threat was unnecessary: the Russian bookstores are so fearful that they didn't need raids, they have removed all my books, as well as those of other "foreign agents" - at least they are no longer prominent to find.
Last week, MP Lugovoi announced that the German foundation “XZ gGmbh” had been classified as an “undesirable organization” at his request.
From the perspective of Russian law, this is a terrible status - any cooperation with such an organization entails criminal proceedings.
I am the founder of “XZ gGmbh”.
In spring 2022, shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine, I founded a foundation together with the famous Russian film director Ilya Khschanowski to support Russian cultural projects.
We thought that the best way to fight Putin's regime was to bring the most popular Russian cultural figures, artists, musicians, stand-up comedians and also influencers to our side.
Scandalous Project: Animated Series
Of all the projects realized, the most sensational was an animated series focused on Russian history.
We called them “Great Russian Villains.”
Their goal was to take a fresh look at Russian history and reflect the fact that many of the most popular heroes were murderers.
In Russian history books we are typically taught to be proud of violence, wars and bloodshed - things we should be horrified by.
This animated series caused a huge scandal.
All propaganda television channels reported on it, accusing us of insulting Russian history, of manipulating and falsifying, but above all of humiliating national pride.
We replied that the real humiliation and even destruction of Russia is the war unleashed by Putin, which, unfortunately, is based on traditional Russian historical mythology.
Revenge for my book?
It is about this - about the historical myths on which the justification of the current war is based - that I wrote my new book, War and Punishment.
I presented it in Berlin on October 6th last year.
Already on October 9th, deputy Lugovoi wrote an application to the public prosecutor's office - this is evident from the document he published, which states that "XZ gGmbh" was classified as an "undesirable organization".
Maybe it was revenge for the book.
Or maybe it was cumulative.
Three names are mentioned in Lugovoi's letter: the two founders, I and Ilya Khrzhanovsky, and the foundation's managing director, Maya Stravinskaya.
This means that at least we can no longer travel to Russia – or to any of the countries from which we could hypothetically be extradited to Russia.
I don't want to think about other consequences - unfortunately the character Lugovoi represents such other consequences.
We remember that last year, three independent Russian journalists and political activists showed symptoms of poisoning after taking part in a conference of Russian opposition activists in Berlin.
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Contract killings desired
After the news of Lugovoi's denunciation and the Prosecutor General's Office's reaction to it, a viewer of the animated series wrote to me: "The villains saw the program, did not see themselves in it and are offended."
It's ironic that in modern Russia, villainy has become not only acceptable, but almost compulsory.
Contract killings are not only approved, they are encouraged.
Of course, this is only a temporary phenomenon.
And the murderers will go down in history as murderers.
What is interesting is that Ramón Mercader, a native of Barcelona, is not buried in his home country and not even under his own name.
His grave is in Moscow, and on his tombstone is a strange, embarrassing pseudonym: "Ramón Ivanovich Lopez."