Put on the Pillar: Retributive Justice in Russia

On the Pillar: Russia Strengthens the State Through Archaic Forms of Humiliation and Ignorance Methods come from Chechnya. They are mainly used by young people from creative industries. A guest post.

I amIn Russia, more and more actors are trying to break the state’s monopoly on the use of force. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s sledgehammer became a symbol of extrajudicial justice. President Putin encouraged it. For years, Prigozhin’s private army, which rehearsed a one-day uprising in June, was state-sponsored. Meanwhile, each governor was given the right to form special military units in case of war.

On July 9, the Telegram channel “Widows of Soldiers of Russia” gave “true patriots” the right to kill “traitors to the fatherland”: the group called for justice by ignoring legal procedures and seeking revenge. He morally justifies such awareness through the religious narrative of a holy struggle against “Satan”—a catchy term now associated with Ukraine, the collective West, and NATO.