Russia has launched a brutal anti-dissent campaign during the last year. This included locking up the leader of opposition Alexei Navalny and silencing his supporters and the organization he founded.
New YORK (AP) — – When Alexei Navalny was arrested in January 2021, tens of thousands of Russians were on the streets to protest and demanded that the most prominent Kremlin criticisms be released. They also began shouting slogans in support of President Vladimir Putin. Many were detained.
Since Navalny was given 2 years and a half in prison in the time, his group, its close associates and protesters were either prosecuted and fled the country or shackled by the new draconian legislation or orders. Independent news outlets were shut down, and social media sites were banned.
A silent protester who held up an empty sign earlier this month within the town of Nizhny Novgorod was arrested.
Putin’s crackdown, which is unprecedented in post-Soviet Russia, has engulfed the entire country. When Navalny’s sentence was imposed for an additional nine years by a judge on Tuesday, little opposition could be gathered. The Kremlin had been working for a long time to ensure that.
Yet, there are still hints of defiance and protest.
“Of course, nine years is a stiff sentence,” said Navalny, his ally Ilya Yashin. He has declared his intention to stay within Russia. “Rapists and criminals and thieves in Russia typically receive a lesser sentence. … However, in reality (the sentence) does not mean anything, since everyone knows: Alexei will spend as many years in jail as Putin will spend inside the Kremlin.”
In a letter to Putin, Yashin added sarcastically in his Facebook post, “You’re quite the optimist.”
Navalny was convicted of fraud and contempt of court charges in a temporary courtroom at the penal colony the prisoner is. The movie, which was seen as a ploy to keep Putin’s main adversary in prison indefinitely, is possible.
The corruption fighter of 45 years old who was able to escape in 2020 the poisoning of the nerve agent is blamed on the Kremlin and posted in Facebook in a humorous post made by his group: “My space flight is taking a bit longer than expected.
The trial began one week before when Russian troops entered Ukraine in February. Twenty-four even spurred an act of defiance that one of the witnesses in the prosecution. Fyodor Gorozhanko was a former member of the Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, who has since quit Russia. He was a witness who testified that he was bribed to testify against the opposition leader.
Navalny’s foundation and its nationwide organization of offices in regional areas were banned last year for being extremists and shut down. The Kremlin also increased the pressure on other activists and organizations and independent media and human rights groups.
Many have been given an ensnaring “foreign agent” label, which means they will be subject to more scrutiny by the government and ridicule. A lot of them have had to shut down due to pressure.
Since the military invasion in Ukraine, the crackdown on Ukrainians has been extended and has even slowed down most independent news websites. Facebook and Instagram were both banned for being extremist and banned in Russia. Twitter was also blocked, but Russians who utilize VPNs, also known as virtual private networks VPNs, or VPNs, can get around restrictions on access to social media platforms and news media outlets that are not allowed in Russia.
A massive arrest of antiwar protesters was put in place, but that did not stop them from happening. Over 15,000 protesters were imprisoned protesting against war, according to the OVD Info rights group that monitors the political arrests.
On March 14th, live evening news broadcast on the state-owned Russian TV had to be interrupted by an individual who stood behind the anchor, holding an original poster that protested the conflict on both English and Russian. The OVD-Info website has identified the woman as Marina Obsyannikova, one of their employees. She was arrested and was fined.
The new legislation was ratified by the parliament, securing content that is not in line with the official position as “fake news” or undermines any discrediting of the Russian military or its activities in Ukraine. Media outlets have been under tension over whether to call the incident a “war” or an “invasion” instead of following the government’s explanation of it being a “special military operation.” The first cases of criminality under the new law were announced soon after the law was adopted. In addition, it implicated two prominent figures in the public eye who criticized the offensive on social media.
Navalny’s team has not been deterred by the conflict and the trials of its leader and announced that it would be re-establishing the foundation into an international entity.
“Corruption kills,” read its latest website. “As Ukrainian cities are bombed by Putin and his gang, this is never more evident. Putin and his entourage have tried everything to remain in power. They steal and steal and then steal more. In their pursuit of impunity they sparked an unending war.”
“We will find all of their mansions in Monaco and their villas in Miami, and when we do, we will make sure Putin’s elite loses everything it owns,” the statement reads. “We have been fighting Putin since 2011. We will fight him until we win.”
The Navalny team also promoted a brand new YouTube channel that was created, Popular Politics, that since March 5th has attracted more than 920,000 users.
On Monday, the company released an online video on YouTube in which it claimed that Putin has the $700 million superyachts located in the Italian port. The video had gotten more than 2.8 million views as of Tuesday evening. The New York Times reported earlier this month that the ship’s captain denied Putin owned or ever been aboard the vessel.
The allegations were in stark contrast with Putin’s recent warnings against those who are opposed to the conflict in Ukraine and comparing the elites “who have villas in Miami or the French Riviera, those who can’t live without foie gras, oysters” to “our people” and “Russia.”
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled Russian oil tycoon who served 10 years in jail in Russia in a case widely believed as retribution for challenging Putin’s ruling on Tuesday, expressed his hope for Navalny.
