Activist at Maischberger
“There is a mood of panic in Russia”
By Marko Schlichting
10/12/2022 3:39 am
The human rights organization Memorial will be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Its founder Irina Scherbakowa is a guest on the ARD talk show “Maischberger”. Together with security expert Claudia Major, she analyzes the situation in Russia and Ukraine.
Irina Scherbakova still can’t believe it. The Russian human rights organization Memorial, which she founded, will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Together with two other award winners from Belarus and Ukraine, she has been documenting war crimes, human rights violations and abuse of power in the three countries – and has been doing so for more than thirty years.
The original goal of the organization Memorial, which was founded in the Soviet Union, was to document and preserve the memories of human rights violations during the communist rule in their country. Memorial now also documents human rights violations in today’s Russia. That doesn’t sit well with those in power there: At the end of last year, the highest Russian court ordered the closure of the organization.
Scherbakova now lives in Germany, but she calls her colleagues at home every day. Sherbakova says they found out in a courtroom that their work was being honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. That’s when her colleagues found out that the organization’s offices had been vacated. She is happy with the price. “It was an incredible feeling,” she says at Maischberger. “And it is very, very important for us that the award also goes to our colleagues in Ukraine. We have known them for a long time and admire their work.”
“You feel like you’re playing Cassandra”
Memorial has long warned of the current war situation, says the historian. “We spoke to a lot of German politicians, except for the AfD. And we always said: Look at history. If you keep talking about nationalism and conjuring up war, the journey can’t go well. And now it’s happened . You suddenly feel like you’re playing Cassandra.”
She is a pacifist, explains Scherbakova. Nevertheless, it is clear to her that Ukraine must now be supported, including with weapons. Ukraine must win the war, the war criminals must be brought before a tribunal. Then perhaps reconciliation between Russia and Ukraine would be possible again.
“Moscow is emptied”
The biggest mistake made by Russian President Putin was the mobilization order, Sherbakova is convinced of that. “Right from the start, this war wasn’t as acclaimed as the annexation of Crimea in 2014. In the beginning, people weren’t so happy, but now there’s a mood of panic,” says Sherbakova, describing the situation in her country after the mobilization. “Moscow is completely empty. You don’t see any men on the street there.”
Nevertheless, she does not believe that Putin will be disempowered. Since the beginning of the war, people have been beaten and tortured in police stations and in prison camps. A politician was sentenced to seven years in prison for saying the word “war”. On the other hand, we know that many conscripted soldiers die before they reach the front – from the cold, from violence, from drinking too much. “The hope is that the mood in Russia will change unexpectedly,” says Scherbakova.
“Attacks on Kyiv are war crimes”
Meanwhile, security expert Claudia Major is analyzing the current situation in the Ukrainian war zone at Maischberger. With the destruction of the Crimean Bridge, one of Putin’s prestige projects, it has become much more difficult to supply the Russian troops in southern Ukraine and the people of Crimea. “But the psychological factor is also important: the feeling that Russia cannot protect its own territory,” says Major.
She calls the rocket attacks on Ukraine “war crimes.” They are aimed exclusively at civilian targets and the population, and that contradicts the Geneva Peace Convention. Major doesn’t quite believe in an attack with nuclear weapons “Russia has other weapons of war up its sleeve: rockets, chemical weapons and cyber attacks. Now it is important to continue to support Ukraine – politically, economically and militarily,” said Claudia Major.