As of: March 10, 2024, 8:49 a.m
By: Yekaterina Jalunina
Comments
Press
Split
Almost all of the Russian president's prominent opponents are captured, have fled into exile or are dead. The persecution of the opposition is reaching its climax before the Russian election.
Moscow – Vladimir Putin does not tolerate contradiction.
Many of Putin's prominent opponents are either in exile, in prison or dead. Ahead of the Russian elections from March 15 to 17, the persecution of opposition figures in Russia has increased again.
There is Oleg Orlov, for example.
One of Russia's longest-serving human rights activists was sentenced to prison in a Moscow court at the end of February.
The 70-year-old was on trial for discrediting the army.
He used the opportunity to denounce the state's increasing control over all areas of life.
Russian police arrested hundreds who publicly mourned Navalny.
His supporters now have to join the military – involuntarily.
© IMAGO/Andrei Bok/SOPA Images
Ahead of the Russia election, repression against Putin critics continues to increase
Orlov is co-founder of Memorial, a renowned human rights organization.
According to media reports, his conviction is an example of the growing repression against dissidents in Russia.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, this trend has increased.
“The state once again controls not only social, political and economic life in our country, but now claims full control over culture and scientific thought and invades private life,” Orlov said after
his sentencing, according to
CNN .
Orlov was imprisoned after publishing an article in a French online newspaper titled “They wanted fascism, they got it.”
Amnesty International
, the world's largest human rights movement, subsequently labeled him a "prisoner of conscience" and called for his release.
Orlov argued in his court speech that state control over all forms of expression was further evidence of Russia's slide into darkness.
Art, literature and culture are the focus of the authorities.
Oleg Orlov is led out of the courtroom in handcuffs after being sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
© ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP
Critical opinions are increasingly being suppressed ahead of the Russia election
As President Vladimir Putin prepares for a possible fifth term in office, critical voices in Russia are becoming increasingly rare.
The persecution of the opposition in Russia at a glance:
My news
Medvedev sees red (wine): Putin confidant always complains about deliveries from Italy
At home in the woods: Swedes are building the NATOs' future super tank
2 hours ago
“Tough stuff”: Union wants to quote Scholz in the report because of the Taurus dispute
“Potential trigger” for Putin’s nuclear strike: Insider provides insight into US plansread
“Everything is allowed against the enemy”: Putin henchman Medvedev sends a clear message
Russia sends thousands of refugees and escalates tensions on the border with Finland
Death in prison:
After several phases of solitary confinement in a penal camp, Alexei Navalny died at the age of just 47.
The well-known Russian opposition leader was considered the most important opponent of President Vladimir Putin until his death.
Murdered:
Boris Nemtsov was murdered with four shots in the back in February 2015 on a bridge just a few meters from the Kremlin.
Five Chechens were convicted without the mastermind being officially named.
Murdered:
In October 2006, journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in her home in Moscow.
She worked for the independent newspaper
Novaya Gazeta
and had documented the crimes of the Russian army in Chechnya for years.
Behind bars:
Vladimir Kara-Mursa was sentenced behind closed doors by a court in April 2023 to 25 years in prison for spreading “false information” about the Russian military.
He is serving his sentence in Siberia.
Behind bars:
The politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in April.
He had denounced the “murder of civilians” in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
Behind bars:
Xenia Fadeyeva, former MP and Navalny ally, had to begin a nine-year prison sentence at the end of 2023.
The authorities accuse the 31-year-old of having founded an “extremist organization”.
Lilia Chanysheva, Navalny's first aide, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in June 2023 on the same grounds.
In exile:
Many opposition figures now live abroad, such as the former world chess champion Garry Kasparov.
When the opposition activist and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was released in 2013 after ten years in prison, he fled to London, from where he finances opposition platforms.
Another way to silence critics is to classify them as “foreign agents.”
Hundreds of human rights activists, opposition activists and journalists have been given this label, including former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and
Novaya Gazeta
editor -in-chief Dmitry Muratov.
Organizations such as Memorial and the Sakharov Center were also dissolved for violating the law on “foreign agents”.
Discrediting the army is just one of several new crimes that have been added to the Russian criminal code since the invasion of Ukraine.
(
jek/afp
)