Petition to State Authorities of the Russian Federation
On August 29, 2020, the Russian media published a bulletin pointing to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on awarding blogger Artemy Lebedev with a Medal of the Order For Merit to the Fatherland, II degree. As per the decree, he was awarded a medal for his contribution to the formation and development of the Russian segment of the Internet. However, participants in the discussion of news on social networks linked the event to Lebedev’s obscene commentary on the recent dismantling of a monument to tsarist soldiers in Adler “at the request of the Circassians.”
Rewarding of the blogger, in our opinion, concretizes the person from whom the unspoken prescription for the installation of monuments to tsarism and its generals — the executioners of peoples. Their construction not only in the North Caucasus, but throughout the entire territory of the Russian Federation is, obviously, one of the main marks of Putin’s “national policy” – “divide and rule.” This point is consistent with the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation on the state-forming people. He, apparently, is also called upon to create conditions for strengthening the personal power of the head of state and minimizing the response in the case of reprisals against those undesirable.
However, raising to the rank of an example for imitation of a person who does not comply with the elementary requirements of morality, and, most importantly, spreads the spirit of discrimination against peoples in a multinational state, encouraging the violation of the rights of peoples, etc. in our opinion, is fraught with dangerous consequences. We are sure that such a “national hero” cannot be accepted in the declared capacity not only by other peoples of the Russian Federation, but also by the Russians themselves.
Based on what has been said, we demand the withdrawal of the award for Artemy Lebedev — the Medal of the Order For Merit to the Fatherland, II degree.
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