Russia: one year after the arrest of Alexei Navalny, the opposition still repressed

A poster of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny being covered up in the streets of Saint Petersburg, April 28, 2021. © ANTON VAGANOV/REUTERS

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1 min

Exactly a year ago, on January 17, 2021, Alexei Navalny returned to Moscow, after a four-month convalescence in Germany, following his poisoning.

As soon as he arrived on Russian soil, the opponent was arrested and subsequently imprisoned.

A year later, Alexeï Navalny is in a penal colony, his main lieutenants in exile and his movement is decimated.

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In his penal colony surrounded by snowdrifts, Alexeï Navalny spent his first New Year behind bars: " 

 ", said he wrote in his diary, published on his social networks.

Since he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for violating his parole in a fraud case dating back to 2014, the crackdown on the opposition has only intensified.

In June, the Russian justice declared "

" all the organizations linked to Alexei Navalny.

All the regional offices of the FBK, its anti-corruption fund, have been dissolved and many of its leaders

to escape prison.

During the summer, several dozen websites linked to Alexeï Navalny were closed.

Intimidation of all dissenting voices

The police carried out raids in the middle of the night at the homes of simple sympathizers.

But the strategy of intimidation goes well beyond the movement of Alexeï Navalny.

Several independent media have been declared " 

 ", and some, such as Vtimes and Proekt have also been closed, as has the election monitoring platform Golos.

Finally, on December 31, one of the pillars of the defense of human rights and guardian of the memory of the victims of the Gulag, the NGO Memorial,

.

►Also read: In Russia, the dissolution of the NGO Memorial, a predictable decision

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• Russia

• Alexei Navalny

• Human rights