On Sunday, an AFP report jolted some of us: “Anti-Kremlin activist Ildar Dadin, who was imprisoned in Russia for protesting against Vladimir Putin, was killed on the front line in Ukraine where he was fighting alongside Kyiv forces.” Dadin was 42.
I wrote about him in the first days of 2017, when he was in prison: “Prisoner of Putin.” That piece began,
“Nastya! If you decide to publish this information about what is happening to me, then try to distribute it as widely as possible. This will increase my chances of staying alive.”
Ildar Dadin wrote those words to his wife, Anastasia Zotova — “Nastya” — on October 31. He was in Penal Colony No. 7 in the town of Segezha, Republic of Karelia. This is in northwest Russia, near Finland. Where Dadin is now, no one knows. At least his wife and family don’t. They can only hope he’s alive.
In prison, Dadin was subjected to the usual torture and degradation — unspeakable.
More from my piece:
Dadin is probably the best-known political prisoner in Russia today. He holds the unfortunate distinction of being the first person jailed under Article 212.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. Those numerals — 212.1 — are notorious among Russian democrats. “No to 212.1,” read their placards.
That law, in effect, banned criticism of the government. A Russian lawyer, Ekaterina Mishina, wrote that 212.1 and the Dadin case “will eventually become textbook examples of the restoration of Bolshevik-style criminal law in post-Soviet Russia.” In his 25 years in power, Putin has re-Sovietized Russia.
One more excerpt from my piece — a few paragraphs:
He was arrested on January 15, 2015. When he was granted a trial, he said he wanted to defend the constitution. In my observation, dissidents always do this, wherever they live: They insist that the regime is violating the constitution. The regime hardly musters the energy to laugh.
Russian media reported that Dadin’s own father testified against him. This is false, says Anastasia: Ildar’s father is proud and supportive of his son. The prosecutors doctored a testimony and had him sign it.
Those prosecutors asked for a two-year sentence on Dadin. The judge gave him three. There was an appeal, leading to a new hearing. Dadin was not allowed to appear in person. He spoke by video link, from prison. “I am here because I live in accordance with my conscience,” he said. He equated silence with complicity. Ordinary citizens have a responsibility for what goes on in their country, he said.
Ildar Dadin survived prison. He has now been killed in the Ukraine war, fighting for the “other side,” but his side, in a way, because he thought it was imperative to defeat Putin and Putinism — imperative for all.
In an article for the BBC, Sarah Rainsford writes,
Soon after his release in 2017, I met him in Moscow and he described being hung from a wall by his cuffed wrists. The guards had then threatened him with rape. He admitted that the brutality nearly broke him.
So when I learned that Dadin had joined a battalion of Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine, I got back in touch earlier this year and we had a series of long exchanges.
“I can’t sit by and do nothing and so become an accomplice to Russian evil, to its crimes,” Dadin explained, just as principled and intense as I remembered him.
An extraordinary man, Ildar Dadin. I was deeply impressed with Anastasia Zotova, too. I podcasted with her, back in 2017, here.
Many Russians hope that their country will one day be free of dictatorship, and I share that hope. Imagine a Russia that works to build up Russia itself, rather than to destroy and subjugate others.