This week our guest on the podcast is Lev Markovich

Shlosberg. Lev Markovich is a Russian politician, a civil society and humanrights activist, and a journalist. He is chair of Yabloko’s Pskov regionalbranch, a member of Yabloko’s federal political committee and a deputy of Pskovregional legislative assembly from the Yabloko party. The issues we discuss inthe podcast include: Shlosberg’s first job as a teacher in a school for youngoffenders; the creation of the Revival [Vozrozhdenie] Centre for Social Design;the development of civic organizations in the 1990s; the foundation of thenewspaper Pskov Gubernia; freedom of speech and the state of civil societyin Russia; the case of Pskov journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva and the use of thelaw on ‘foreign agents’ against Radio Liberty journalist Liudmila Savitskayaand Denis Kamalyagin, editor-in-chief of Pskov Gubernia; politics intoday’s Russia; the Navalny phenomenon; the history of human rights and civilsociety; and the future of democracy in Russia. The podcast is in theRussian language. You can also listen to the podcast on Rights in Russia (https://www.rightsinrussia.org/podcast-7/), SoundCloud,  Spotify and  iTunes.  Themusic, from Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola, is performed for us by KarolinaHerrera.

Sergei

Nikitin writes on Facebook:  Twoanti-Soviet wall newspapers at the Pskov Pedagogical Institute made by historystudent Lev Shlosberg and his comrade in 1981, taken down on the orders of thedean of the history department; work at the Sebezh special vocational schoolfor young offenders, service in the Soviet army; creation of the Revival Centrefor Social Design; establishment of Pskov Free University and a psychologicalassistance telephone hotline; creation of the PskovskayaGubernia newspaper. Lev Markovich has achieved a great deal, and there wasa lot to talk about on our podcast. Today, Lev Shlosberg is a well-knownpolitician and he rightly told us that ‘when state policy is so repressive, thevery act of entering politics as a member of the opposition – rather thansupporting the government – entails enormous risks. As the saying goes, you’relucky if they don’t kill you.’ We talked about Svetlana Prokopyeva, AnastasiaShevchenko, Liudmila Savitskaya, and Denis Kamalyagin, editor-in-chief of PskovGubernia. It is surprising that 40% of the foreign agents, according to theMinistry of Justice, are from Pskov Gubernia! We also talked about AlekseiNavalny, whom Lev Markovich described as ‘simultaneously the personal prisonerand hostage of Vladimir Putin.’ However, Lev Markovich refuses to abandon allhope: ‘History never gives final answers – and therein lies our chance,’ hesaid.

Simon

Cosgrove adds: If you want to listen to this podcast on the podcasts.com websiteand it doesn’t seem to play, please download by clicking on the three dots tothe right. A summary of some of the week’s events in Russia relevant tohuman rights can be found on our website here.