![]() ![]() Police officers detain a protester during a demonstration against the detention of Alexey Navalny in St. New laws add to already-excessive restrictions on freedom of assembly – for example, by expanding the burdens placed on organisers and then requiring prior authorisation even for a series of single-person protests – a tactic that had been used to evade those restrictions. The government can simply ban foreign organizations operating in Russia by labeling them “undesirable” on vague security grounds. With comparable malleability, the law also applies to journalists who are deemed to be carrying out “political activities” while “acting in the interests of” an international or foreign organization. Reinforced by new amendments, the law is now also being used to stigmatize opposition candidates who receive “methodological or organizational support” from abroad, whatever that means. Foreign agent legislation is so toxic that it has forced dozens of groups to shut down. One new law expands the charge of “foreign agent” – which in Russia has connotations of being a spy or traitor – to virtually anyone who criticises the government and receives any amount of foreign funding or other forms of non-financial support. The Kremlin is responding with increasingly harsh tactics – most recently a spate of repressive laws adopted in late 2020. No wonder there has been an outpouring of discontent, criticism, and protests. ![]() Coupled with Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine, it has left the Kremlin stuck with an economically challenged region and sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States. Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine appealed to nationalist sentiments, but that effect is fading. The oligarchs around Putin are doing well, but most Russians are not. The easy growth in income and prospects that followed the chaotic 1990s are a distant memory. Polls in Russia show that President Putin has widespread support, but the Kremlin has its reasons to worry. Russian honour guards march during a military parade in Red Square, 7 November 2018 Yet a less visible battle for human rights and democracy in Russia extends well beyond Navalny, as illustrated by the broad range of people and organisations now targeted by the Kremlin. The drama surrounding Navalny and the protests it has sparked have understandably grabbed headlines. Meanwhile, no one has been prosecuted for his attempted murder. And it galvanized many Russians to air a host of grievances regardless of whether they support Navalny. The FSB’s apparent attempt to kill Navalny with a Novichok nerve agent, and then the Kremlin’s arrest of Navalny after he returned to Moscow for violating his parole agreement while getting medical treatment in Germany, boosted his profile across the country. It has been viewed more than 100 million times. His latest, Putin’s Palace, alleges that an enormous estate has been built for the Russian president with the fruits of corruption. Navalny sidestepped them by producing slick documentaries and posting them on YouTube. The Kremlin tries to manage information and manipulate the public mood by controlling television and other mainstream media. Navalny counter-attacked by encouraging the public to vote for candidates from these pseudo-opposition parties in lieu of candidates from the ruling United Russia. Over the years, the Kremlin has built a simulated democracy with a series of ersatz-opposition parties while barring Navalny’s party and impeding others. ![]() Last summer while he was visiting supporters in distant Siberia, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB’s main successor, apparently tried to kill him. Navalny’s support was once said to extend no further than the intelligentsia of Moscow and St Petersburg, but he eventually built a movement across the country. It’s not hard to see why Navalny gets under Vladimir Putin’s skin. ![]()
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