'Punitive Psychiatry' Alive and Well in the 'New' Russia

As noted here

If you're incensed by corruption in Russian life and politics and you're bold enough to try to do something about it, you must be crazy. No, this is not Solzhenitsyn's Soviet Union in 1976 -- this is Vladimir Putin's Russia in 2006.

There's a difference. It's not the all-powerful KGB or its successor, the Federal Security Service, locking brave dissidents away for months or years, "drugged into tranquillity and prevented from talking to lawyers or family." (At least, not yet.) It's a patchwork of "regional authorities in localized disputes" and "private antagonists who have the means [ . . . ] to bribe their way through the courts."

And as reported in the LA Times (registration may be required)

Albert Imendayev collected the signatures he needed to run for the legislature last fall in this city on the banks of the Volga River. He met with supporters, prepared his campaign material. [ . . . ]

Only days before he was required to appear at the local election commission to finalize his candidacy, an investigator from the prosecutor's office met Imendayev at the courthouse with three police officers. They kept him locked up until a judge could be found to sign the order committing him for a psychiatric evaluation.

"The hearing took place, and I was taken straight off to the asylum," said the businessman and human rights activist. By the time he was released nine days later, the election filing deadline had passed and he was out of the race.

Imendayev's act of insanity was filing a series of legal complaints against local officials, police, prosecutors and judges, alleging corruption, violation of court procedures and cronyism — charges that are far from rare in today's Russia. The prosecutor, a frequent target of Imendayev's darts, called his behavior "paranoia." [ . . . ]

"This has only just resurfaced in recent years, and for a time we couldn't even believe it was happening. But now it seems quite clear that such abuses are on the rise, and that this is a trend," said Yury Savenko, president of the Independent Psychiatric Assn., an advocacy group of professional psychiatrists that has pushed for mental health reforms in Russia.

The ranks of the "insane" over the last three years have included women divorcing powerful husbands, people locked in business disputes and citizens, like Imendayev, who have become a nuisance by filing numerous legal challenges against local politicians and judges or lodging appeals against government agencies to uphold their rights.

And there is so much more to it all.