The Kremlin is widening its hunt for ‘enemies’

MOSCOW, Russia — As the Kremlin faces off with the West, it’s also setting its sights on new adversaries at home.

After a series of trials and criminal charges, the political opposition has been all but crushed.

Instead, musicians, writers and other cultural figures appear to have become the state’s newest enemies, signaling a broader crusade some critics say harks back to Soviet repression.

Celebrities who oppose the separatist rebellion in war-torn Ukraine are finding themselves in official crosshairs, publicly berated or even slandered in state-run media campaigns.

Most prominent was a saga involving musician Andrei Makarevich, the widely celebrated frontman for a legendary Russian rock group named Time Machine.

Last month, Makarevich became the target of a fierce campaign by loyalist officials and other Kremlin supporters who cast the popular rocker as a traitor and called on the authorities to strip him of his state awards.

His crime was apparently performing for civilians in eastern Ukraine who had been displaced by the fighting there — and for whom Moscow has long expressed nominal concern.

A hard-line parliamentarian from the ruling United Russia Party led the charge, claiming in an interview with the Izvestia daily newspaper that the musician was “partnering with fascists.”

That wasn’t the end of it.

Makarevich — who also criticized Russia's annexation of Crimea in March — later featured prominently in a pseudo-documentary on the state-controlled network NTV called “13 Friends of the Junta,” the Kremlin’s term for the post-revolutionary government in Ukraine.

Between shots of Makarevich performing onstage for refugees, a montage featured artillery shells exploding, houses burning and local residents carrying away their dead neighbors.

The Kremlin has long alleged that Ukraine's anti-separatist operation is actually aimed at killing innocent civilians.

“And 60 kilometers from a bloody battle, the punishers were clapping for their idol,” the announcer said dramatically of the apparently pro-Ukraine crowd.

NTV is notorious for its hatchet jobs aimed at Kremlin critics, particularly opposition politicians and protest leaders.

A series called “Anatomy of a Protest,” aired during the street movement against Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, accused its leaders of plotting a coup and even suggested ordinary protesters were paid in cookies to attend rallies.

Some parts were even used as evidence in a trial against firebrand leftist Sergei Udaltsov, who was sentenced earlier this summer to four and a half years in prison for allegedly organizing mass riots. He denies the charges.

Now NTV is at it again, with Makarevich just one of many targets.

The same segment also took aim at popular satirist Viktor Shenderovich and writer Dmitry Bykov, both revered by Russia’s intelligentsia for their sharp wit and poignant social commentary.

They had attended a forum in Ukraine organized by Mikhail Khodorkovsky — the former oligarch and top Putin foe who served a decade in prison on allegedly trumped-up charges — and devoted to fostering a dialogue between Russians and Ukrainians.

A follow-up report titled “Another 17 Friends of the Junta” slammed popular Russian-born performers Ivan Dorn and Noize MC, a leading rapper here, for sporting Ukrainian symbols during recent concerts.

In all of those cases, the artists were accused of selling out and were slandered by an array of obscure talking heads.

“Unfortunately, they’ve exhausted their creative potential and are prepared to sell their talent for any kind of money,” said pro-Kremlin political analyst Alexei Martynov of Bykov and Shenderovich.

The crisis in Ukraine has galvanized Russia’s conservative majority — Putin’s traditional support base — and further alienated the liberal intelligentsia that had driven the failed street protests of 2012.

Putin’s sky-high ratings and widespread public approval of his Ukraine policies appear to have made it even easier to target Kremlin critics who are popular figures.

Some observers suggest the campaign bears resemblance to the Soviet Union’s method of slandering, or outright persecuting, dissenting cultural figures.

Alexei Levinson, a sociologist at the independent Levada Center think-tank, likened it to the Stalinist tactic of “searching for enemies everywhere.”

By targeting popular cultural figures — especially Makarevich — it sends an important signal, he added.

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“It says, ‘We’re not afraid to raise our hands against those who are loved by millions,’” Levinson said.

Whether or not they’ve become direct targets, some cultural icons appear fed up with the increasingly unfriendly climate for public dissenters.

Boris Akunin, one of Russia’s most celebrated novelists, made headlines this week when he announced he would spend most of his time outside of the country.

“I have nothing in common with Putin’s Russia,” Akunin, a prominent Kremlin critic, wrote in a blog entry last weekend, “it is all alien to me.”