Policemen arresting a protester during clashes following a demonstration at Pushkin square in Moscow. Photos: Celestino Arce Lavin/ZUMA Wire/dpa
Alexei and Oksana Vesselov are some of the first Russians to be found guilty of "discrediting" their own army, under a new law.
Back in March 2022, they were sitting in the dining room of a health sanatorium in the southern Russian region of Kabardino-Balkaria, talking about their relatives.
It was a few weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin had launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, prompting Oksana to worry about her 87-year-old mother, who lives in Kiev.
Alexei says the battles should not be taking place at all – but this was when disaster struck. His words were overheard by someone sitting at the table next to them. She alerted security and the Vesselovs were arrested.
They were later released, but a court ordered Alexei to pay a fine of 30,000 roubles (RM1,540).
Putin's war continues to bring death, destruction and enormous suffering to Ukraine. But it has also marked Russian life at home. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled in protest against the invasion or fear of being drafted into the army.
Meanwhile, for those who are critical of the war, the situation is becoming ever more precarious as the practice of denunciation spreads.
Some 145,000 registered their complaints in the first half of 2022, according to Russian watchdog Roskomnadzor, an increase of 25% compared to the same period last year.
While only a fraction results in convictions, the fear of being reported is growing since the Kremlin passed a series of laws at the start of the war.
The laws can be interpreted relatively arbitrarily. The most widely feared is the law against denigrating Russia's armed forces which can be penalised with up to 15 years in prison.
Russians have a tragic history of betraying their fellow citizens, reporting them to the authorities for infractions.
The reign of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (1927-1953) was known for unleashing waves of denunciations that resulted in the deaths of several million people, killed in purges and by state terror.
The person informing on someone else kills two birds with one stone, by supposedly fulfilling a patriotic duty while also ridding themselves of someone they dislike.
The situation is becoming more precarious in Russia for those who are critical of the war as the practice of denunciation spreads.
It is hardly surprising that presently, the people telling on each other at the moment are often in close personal or professional circles.
Take the English teacher in the city of Penza southeast of Moscow, who was sentenced to five years' probation after students told on her for anti-war remarks.
In St Petersburg, residents call the police because they feel threatened by a neighbour listening to loud Ukrainian music in his car. He was fined more than US$350 (RM1,630).
In Moscow, an eighth-grader is reported by the mother of a classmate for crumpling a Russian paper flag.
Also in Moscow, after an argument, a woman turns her son to the authorities, who until then had managed to hide and avoid being drafted into the army.
Even the Kremlin seems to be uneasy about the force with which spying and betrayal have returned.
"As far as denunciations are concerned, it was always something abhorrent, it still is, and I hope it will remain so," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said recently when asked by journalists about the fact that his compatriots are now literally showering each other with accusations.
It is not clear whether the practice will be easy to halt. The more the state clamps down on critics and dissidents, the more Russians loyal to the Kremlin start to imagine there is an enemy within and their help is needed to fight it, historian Ilya Ukhin told Nastoyashcheye Vremya, a broadcaster critical of the government.
"There is an idea that we are surrounded by enemies, that there is a 'fifth column' in our country that needs to be tracked down, and that the social activity of citizens who are not indifferent is an important instrument," he says.
As fears of the "enemy within" multiply, some are taking reporting to another level, such as the political activist Vitaly Borodin, who specialises in complaints against celebrities.
Borodin has already denounced pop diva Alla Pugacheva, singer Valery Meladze and actress Liya Akhedzhakova. He demanded the Russian Prosecutor General's Office investigate the lead singer of the band Nochnye Snaipery, Diana Arbenina, and also the performer Danila Koslowski.
Some stars Borodin accuses of allegedly funding the Ukrainian military, almost all of discrediting the Russian army.
Some who criticise the war have fled abroad but for those who remain in Russia, it almost does not make a difference whether they are ordered to pay a fine or not.
After all, some of their concerts have already been cancelled, guest roles terminated and contracts prematurely axed.
To be suspected of discrediting the army in today's Russia is punishment enough. – dpa
