A worker in St. Petersburg covers a portrait of Russian opposition leader Navalny with paint, which reads “Hero of the New Age” in Russian next to it. (April 28, 2021)
As repression and persecution by Putin’s authorities grows, opposition leader Navalny’s team announces the dissolution of its organization in Russia. The authorities have used facial recognition systems to make mass arrests of people who participated in demonstrations in support of Navalny a few days ago, and the crackdown has now extended and spread to intellectual elites such as lawyers, academics, and the media.
Bank accounts of those listed as “extremist organizations” frozen
On April 30, the Russian Federal Financial Supervisory Service added Navalny’s headquarters to the list of terrorist and extremist organizations. Individuals and organizations included in this list will not be able to use banking services and their bank accounts will be frozen.
Volkov, a leading supporter of Russian opposition leader Navalny who is currently in exile, announced on April 29 the dissolution of Navalny’s headquarters throughout Russia. Volkov is the head of Navalny’s headquarters and Navalny’s main political adviser.
Volkov said Navalny’s national opposition network is now unable to work because anyone working and serving for the agencies faces security risks and authorities would charge them with supporting extremist groups.
Russian prosecutors recently moved to designate several Navalny-led agencies as “extremist organizations,” and a court in Moscow began hearing the matter April 29, with the court’s ruling widely expected to satisfy prosecutors’ demands. That would mean that Russian media outlets reporting on Navalny’s activities in the future would be required by law to repeat that Navalny’s leadership is a banned “extremist organization,” and that opposition symbols involving Navalny would be banned as in the case of terrorist organizations.
Navalny’s headquarters, as well as Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, the Foundation for the Defense of Citizens’ Rights and other institutions, announced on April 26 that they would cease their activities throughout the country, including on social media.
Prominent Lawyer Arrested After Authorities’ Reckoning
After mass demonstrations in support of Navalny broke out across Russia on April 21, the repression and persecution that followed intensified and grew in scope.
Pavlov, a prominent lawyer from St. Petersburg, was arrested by authorities on April 30 and his home was searched. Authorities accused him of revealing lawyer confidences. Pavlov heads Team 29, a prominent human rights organization based in St. Petersburg. He is also a defense attorney in a number of cases involving accusations of espionage by Russian security services against prominent journalists, scientists and business executives.
In the northern Arkhangelsk region, Varikov, head of Navalny’s headquarters there, was sentenced April 29 by a local court to two-and-a-half years in prison.
Authorities also filed new criminal charges on April 29 against Navalny himself and two other of his main supporters. Authorities accused them of illegally forming a social organization that causes harm to citizens’ health. Russian media said that the authorities have activated an uncommon legal provision for sentences of up to four years, which they used many years ago to deal with the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo cult operating in Russia.
A report published by the human rights group “Interior Ministry Information” said that nearly 2,000 people were arrested nationwide during the April 21 pro-Navarni demonstrations. More than a week after that, about 200 more people were arrested in more than 20 cities across the country, half of them in the capital Moscow.
Fines for Using Face Recognition System to Track Retweets of Protest Posts
Moscow police have used facial recognition systems in particular to arrest activists over the last week or so. Many people were recorded by the facial recognition system while participating in the 21st demonstration and were taken away by police in the following days, either on the streets, in their homes or at their offices.
The face recognition system established by Putin’s authorities in recent years is most developed and sophisticated in the capital city of Moscow. Camera footage is scattered throughout the streets of Moscow, from public places such as the subway to the entrances of residential buildings. During the beginning of last year’s epidemic and the spring closure of the city, Moscow’s face recognition system demonstrated great efficiency. A number of Chinese in Moscow, including many international students, as well as many citizens, were punished by the authorities using the facial recognition system to record violations of epidemic-related regulations.
During the recent crackdown, which lasted more than a week, many were released with warnings from the police, others were sentenced to tens of days in jail, and others were fined large sums of money. Among them were prominent Russian teachers, writers, doctors, human rights activists and others.
Some of them were punished simply for retweeting posts on social media about the April 21 pro-Navarni demonstration. A 60-year-old retiree from the southern Tambov region was fined twice by a local court for a total amount of 510,000 rubles, equivalent to about $7,000. Rezhkov, a well-known activist and former deputy speaker of the State Duma, was similarly fined 20,000 rubles.
A 65-year-old female teacher of French in Moscow was detained in a police station for two days a few days ago for her participation in the demonstration on the 21st. Agadzhanian, a prominent Russian scholar and historian of religious issues and professor at the State Humanities University, was also fined for his participation in the demonstration, as well as being held in police custody for a day. More than 100 foreigners were deported for participating in the 21-day demonstration and were banned from entering Russia for 40 years, said the official in charge of migration affairs at the Interior Ministry in Moscow.
Seven journalists from several different news outlets were summoned and interviewed by police a few days ago for having covered the Moscow demonstrations on the 21st. Some companies and institutions have also fired employees who participated in the demonstrations.
Persecution of the intellectual elite and the beginning of a harsher political winter?
According to opposition activist Yashin, if the anti-government protests are large enough and attended by an unusually large number of people, it will be difficult for the authorities to respond.
ACT-1, Yashin: “The authorities’ strategy is to crack down on all kinds of demonstrations, including those with political overtones, and they can break up demonstrations of hundreds or thousands of people. But if the number of demonstrations and rallies can reach hundreds of thousands of people, the police will be helpless to do anything about it.”
Political scientist Morozov said Navalny’s supporters everywhere are mainly the urban middle class, who are law-abiding. Unlike some radical opposition forces that can go underground and continue their struggle immediately after a crackdown by authorities, Navalny’s supporters are better at engaging in public campaigns to win hearts and minds. He believes that being defined as an “extremist group” would be a huge blow to Navalny’s opposition activities.
Morozov believes that Russia may be entering a harsher political winter, perhaps as long as a decade, and that it is only at the beginning of the process. It is very much like what happened in Czechoslovakia after the suppression of the Prague Spring in the late 1960s, he said. Or the situation during the Cold War, from 1975 to 1985, after the end of the U.S.-Soviet détente. At that time, only a few dissidents spoke out, despite the risks.
After the end of the Prague Spring, the Czechoslovak communist authorities began a severe crackdown, when many intellectuals lost their jobs for more than 20 years, and some university professors even had to work as porters, cleaners and other manual laborers to support their families. The famous Moscow Helsinki Club was disbanded in the early 1980s after the crackdown intensified and many of its members were arrested.
Current affairs commentator Skopov says that the authorities have targeted only Navalny supporters and opposition figures, but now they are targeting the cultural and intellectual elite, and that the next step may be to reach more of the press.
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