Vladimir Putin’s star political prisoner—Nadia Savchenko—is a 34-year-old Ukrainian helicopter pilot who served with a volunteer battalion in eastern Ukraine this summer and was taken prisoner by Putin’s proxies. She was subsequently charged with abetting the deaths of two Russian journalists who died in an artillery exchange between Ukrainian and Russian forces. Currently imprisoned in Moscow, Savchenko has been on a hunger strike since December 13, 2014. Needless to say, her life is in danger.
On January 9th, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called for Savchenko’s “immediate release”: “We’re deeply concerned by reports that Russia has moved Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko to solitary confinement.”
At a December 18th news conference, Putin made the following comments about Savchenko
According to our law enforcement agencies, Ms. Savchenko called in artillery fire via radio. If it is reliably established during the pretrial investigation and the subsequent trial that she was not involved and is not guilty, she will be released immediately. But if they prove that she was indeed involved in the journalists’ murder, a Russian court will issue a proper ruling, as I see it, and she will serve her sentence in accordance with the verdict.
According to the Open Dialog Foundation, an independent human rights watchdog who provided legal aid to Savchenko’s lawyers, “there is no evidence of her guilt in the alleged crime; however, the Russian court continues to render decisions, favorable to the prosecution.” The foundation alleges that the charges rest on the account of a wounded Ukrainian soldier who “testified as a result of torture and a direct threat to his life.” According to the foundation, Savchenko’s lawyers “were also able to obtain information regarding mobile phone connections and phone calls” that prove “Savchenko could not have committed the crime of which she is accused, as at that time she was in a completely different location than the one indicated in the criminal case.”
Given Putin’s hostility to rule of law, democracy, and human rights, it’s no surprise that the charges brought against Savchenko are totally unjustified. Savchenko’s arrest is as much of a setup and travesty as the arrests of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Vladimir Yevtushenkov by Putin, or of Yuri Lutsenko and Yulia Tymoshenko by deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
So, why Savchenko? Why pick on her when Putin could have just as easily pinned bogus charges on any one of the more than 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war who’ve been detained by his terrorist proxies in the Donbas enclave?
It’s hard not to conclude that Savchenko’s being a woman has something—everything?—to do with her arrest and detention. Male Ukrainian prisoners are, as far as Putin’s macho understanding of the world is concerned, the right kind of prisoners: men. After all, war and fighting are occupations for men. Some men, like the macho Putin, do these tasks well and survive. Some perform badly and die. C’est la vie. One thing is clear, however: women—and especially Ukrainian women—have no place whatsoever on the battlefield. Deconstruct Russian and Soviet cultural stereotypes of Ukrainians and you’ll find that the Little Russians are usually endowed with “feminine” characteristics. Which is to say that Ukrainians are “weak,” while Russians, the elder brother, are “strong”—and invariably portrayed as males.
Savchenko’s capture must have appeared like a golden opportunity to Russia’s sexist-in-chief. Arresting and throwing her in jail was like killing four birds with one stone. Big Vlad got to huff and puff like a he-man. Russia’s sexist political culture was reinforced. Women were put in their place. And Ukrainians were reminded that they’re no match for the nation that spawned Putin.
Naturally, this embarrassing display of machismo is just a cover for some deep-seated insecurity about women. In that sense, Putin is no different from his kid brother, Yanukovych, whose need to establish his masculinity ultimately led to his complete political impotence.
Obviously, Savchenko should be freed. Just as obviously, she won’t—at least not until Putin’s fears of strong Ukrainian women are calmed.
Photo Credit: AFP
