The Bakhmina Debate
Watch on RUTube.ru
One of the hottest political debates in Russia right now is if ex-Yukos lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina should be granted parole from her prison sentence due to fact that she pregnant while in prison (and recently gave birth there).
This debate recently made Russian national television on "To the Limit" (Ê Áàðüåðó), a popular talk show which features debates on a variety of topics, allows the public to vote for who they think is winning (note the running totals at the bottom of the screen), and then presents the opinion of a diverse and highly educated panel of judges on the debate. In an environment that is largely state-controlled the late-night talk show stands out for its giving voice to political dissidents and for its thought-provoking host Vladimir Solovev.
Debating against Bakhmina's parole is Maria Ivanovna Arbatova, a political activist, playwright, and author who espouses an openly feminist philosophy (there aren't many strong, open feminists in Russian politics or even society). Arbatova was a dissident under the Soviet Union, an early member of the now-defunct political party SPS, and has written a book on how she failed to "fairly get into the Duma."
Arguing for Bakhmina's early release is rights activist and the leader of the Russian political party "Democratic Union," Valeriya Novodvorskaya. A former Soviet dissident, Novodvorskaya is a self-styled and independent-minded human rights activist. She has often appeared on Echo Moskvi, often recognized as Russia's most liberal national newsource.
The result is interesting, not only for the debate itself, the pubic opinion expressed, and analysis provided by the program, but also for the colorful public conversation started after the program (only in Russian) was posted to the popular site RUtube.ru.
The public movement for Bakhmina's release has a site at Bakhmina.ru/en/. It's been translated into seven languages and has collected about 90,000 signatures for its petition, mostly from Russian speakers.
Watch the debate on RUTube.ru
This resource was featured in our December Newsletter.
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