NEW YORK (AP) — When Alexei Navalny was arrested in January 2021, tens of thousands of Russians filled the streets to protest and demand the release of the prominent Kremlin critic, chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin. Thousands were arrested.
In the months that have passed since then, Navalny was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. His organization, close collaborators and other opposition activists were prosecuted, fled the country or found themselves tied by new draconian laws or decrees. Independent media were blocked and social media platforms were banned.
Even a silent anti-war protester holding a blank sign was arrested this month in the city of Nizhny Novgorod.
Putin's repression, unprecedented in post-Soviet Russia, has dominated the country. By the time a court extended Navalny's sentence on Tuesday for another nine years, not much opposition could be expressed. The Kremlin had taken care of it.
And yet, there are still small flashes of protest and defiance.
“Of course, nine years is a harsh sentence,” said Navalny ally Ilya Yashin, who has promised to stay in Russia. “Often, rapists, thieves and murderers receive less in Russia (...) But in reality, (the sentence) means nothing, because everyone understands it: Alexei will spend as much time behind bars as Putin spends in the Kremlin.”
Addressing Putin, Yashin sarcastically added in his Facebook post “you are quite optimistic.”
Following a trial in a makeshift courtroom in the penal colony where he is being held, Navalny was convicted of fraud and disrespect of warrants, a decision interpreted as an attempt to keep Putin's greatest enemy behind bars for as long as possible.
“My space flight is dragging on longer than expected,” the 45-year-old anti-corruption activist, who survived a poisoning with a nerve agent he attributes to the Kremlin in 2020, scorned in a Facebook post published by his team.
His trial, which began a week before Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24, even provoked a small act of defiance from one of the prosecution's witnesses. Fyodor Gorozhanko, a former activist with the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation who later left Russia, stated that he had been coerced into giving evidence against the opposition leader.
Navalny's foundation and a national network of regional offices were classified as extremist and outlawed last year and their operations were suspended. The Kremlin also persecuted other activist groups and organizations, as well as independent media and human rights organizations.
Dozens of them have received the restrictive designation of “foreign agent”, which implies smear and additional government oversight. Many have been forced to close under pressure.
The repression has expanded with the invasion of Ukraine and has virtually silenced most independent news websites. Facebook and Instagram were banned by extremists and blocked in Russia. Twitter too, although Russians who use private virtual networks, or VPNs, can bypass restrictions on access to social media and news outlets banned in Russia.
The authorities launched widespread persecution of the anti-war protests, but that did not stop them. More than 15,000 people were arrested for demonstrating against the war, according to the rights group OVD-Info, which monitors political arrests.
On March 14, a live evening news broadcast on Russian state television was interrupted by a woman who passed behind the presenter with a handwritten anti-war poster in English and Russian. OVD-Info identified her as Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee of the television station who was arrested and fined.
The parliament passed a new law that criminalizes as “fake news” content that deviates from the official line or discredits the Russian army and its actions in Ukraine. The media has been pressured to describe the campaign as “war” or “invasion”, rather than using the official term “special military operation”. The first criminal proceedings under the new law began shortly after its adoption, and have affected, among others, two influential people who condemned the offensive on social media.
Navalny's team has continued despite the war and the trial of its leader, and they announced that they would turn the foundation into an international organization.
“Corruption kills,” their new website said. “While Putin is bombing Ukrainian cities, this has never been more evident. Putin and his circle have done everything to stay in power, and steal, and steal, and steal some more. Drunk from their own impunity, they unleashed a war.”
“We will find all his mansions in Monaco and his villas in Miami, and when we do, we will make sure that Putin's elite lose everything they own,” the statement said. “We have been fighting Putin since 2011. We will fight him until we win.”
Navalny's team also promoted a new YouTube channel they've launched, Popular Politics, which since March 5 has amassed more than 920,000 subscribers.
On Monday they posted a video on YouTube claiming that Putin owns a $700 million superyacht, which is in an Italian port. The new video had 2.8 million views for Tuesday night. The New York Times reported this month that the ship's captain denied that Putin owned or had never been on board.
The accusations contrasted with recent statements by Putin, who ominously condemned those who oppose the war in Ukraine and contrasted the elites “who have villas in Miami on the French Riviera, those who cannot live without foie gras, oysters” with “our people” and “Russia”.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian oil magnate now in exile who spent a decade in prison in Russia on charges widely regarded as revenge for challenging Putin's mandate, spoke optimistically on Tuesday about Navalny.
“Navalny was sentenced to nine years. But what does it matter? What matters is how much time Putin has left. And here I think there is good news for Alexei,” Khodorkovsky tweeted.