RUssian state media and those controlled by corporations close to the Kremlin regularly receive instructions from the presidential administration about the tone and tendency to report on important topics. The system of these documents, known as “Metodichka”, is known from reports by former employees of Russian television stations. Such an order was also sent out on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin announced a state of war for the four Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia during a session of the National Security Council. The exile medium “Meduza” has come into their possession.
The first point of this “Metoditschka” is: “It is important to reassure the audience – nothing essential has changed!” says the document. Russian civil rights activists and lawyers take a completely different view of the decree on the state of war and, above all, a second decree by Putin that was issued on Wednesday.
Martial Law Measures in Russia
According to the preamble, Decree 756, which was expressly justified by declaring a state of war in the four annexed regions, aims to increase the “efficiency” of the executive in Russia’s regions. For this purpose, the regional governors receive additional powers. They are all the greater the closer an area is to the Ukrainian border. The regions immediately bordering Ukraine were put on a “medium readiness” state, the remaining regions of southern and central Russia on “increased readiness” and the rest of the country on “basic readiness”.
Decree number 756 “means that the war has come to the territory of Russia,” the BBC’s Russian service quoted civil rights activist Sergei Krivenko as saying. For the powers ascribed therein to the governors are taken directly from Article 7 of the State of War Act. While you don’t have the full range of martial law measures at your disposal, some of the new powers can have a profound impact on the lives of Russian citizens. For example, vehicles can be searched and traffic can be restricted in “high preparedness” areas, which include Moscow. Infrastructure objects and data centers can be placed under state control for defense needs.
This can also extend to private providers of mobile communications and Internet services, for example. In the affected companies it is possible to suspend rules such as the limitation of working hours. In addition, people from vulnerable areas can be resettled in “medium-ready” areas, where major cities such as Rostov, Kursk, Voronezh and Belgorod are located. In addition, a “special regime” can be issued for entry and exit from these regions. Freedom of movement can also be restricted within these areas.
In addition, the imposition of martial law in the occupied territories can have a direct impact on Russian regions. This emerges from point 3 of the decree. It states, without spatial limitations, that “other measures” from the State of War Act could also be applied if “necessary”. Legal experts have interpreted this in relation to Russian media critical of the Kremlin (i.e. those working in exile) as a reference to Article 8 of the law, which expressly allows the authorities to go deep into the intervene in the economy.
Secret decrees of Putin
In his Telegram channel, the lawyer and human rights activist Pavel Chikov points out other possible consequences of martial law in the four occupied territories for the whole of Russia. Because the declaration of a state of war presupposes an attack on Russian territory, this step sets in motion a whole chain of further measures laid down in the law “On Defense”, writes Chikov. In this way, the defense plan set out in a decree issued by Putin last year is set in motion. The content of the plan is classified, as is a 2014 decree by Putin on territorial defense. This is expressly mentioned in Decree 756: Territorial defense staffs are to be formed in the regions, to which representatives of the civil administration as well as the security forces and the armed forces belong.
The “mobilizing measures” referred to in the decrees contradict statements made by Putin and other Russian politicians about the partial mobilization announced in September. Putin recently announced it would be completed by early November; Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported earlier this week that the city’s residents were apparently in the clear. He was also among the first territorial heads to say after the announcement of Putin’s decrees that they would have no impact on life in the city. The governors of the border areas also assured one after the other on Wednesday that no restrictions were planned. Everything is under control in their areas.
