Six months after opposition chief Alexei A. Navalny died in a Russian jail above the Arctic, Konstantin A. Kotov wakes up and finds an house beneath siege in Moscow.
After smashing the door, the Russian officer got down to confiscate all the things he had with Navalny, as much as the 2018 presidential election and the marketing campaign button within the ebook written by his brother. They then arrested Mr. Kotov and took him away.
His alleged crime: Donate to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund about $30 in the past three years in the past. The Kremlin considers it a militant group.
The demise of Mr. Navalny a yr in the past, who as soon as led tens of hundreds of Russians towards the Kremlin on the streets of Moscow, took a critical blow to Russia’s already plagued opposition. Most of the actions fled overseas amid crackdowns on objections that started earlier than President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, however escalated to the warfare.
Even in Navalny Useless’s transfer in ruins, authorities have chased folks with ties to his group inside Russia. Some view the continued prosecution as a repressive Russian machine working on autopilots. Others see Moscow, which views the legacy of opposition figures as an enduring risk.
“It seems they’re doing it not as a brand new marketing campaign, however from habits,” mentioned Sergei S. Smirnov, editor-in-chief of exiled media outlet media Zona.
Nevertheless, the FSB, the home intelligence company in Russia, believes that it’s strangled political undergrounds that current the identical dangers to the Kremlin, the place the Bolsheviks posed earlier than the autumn of the Russian monarchy in 1917. Andrei Seldatov, the Russian creator, mentioned: Safety facility knowledgeable.
“The comparability between the Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution is embedded within the heads of these folks,” Soldatov mentioned on a London telephone name. “The Emperor Russia collapsed as a result of nice warfare and the massive political events working underground.”
Authorities deal with a variety of targets.
Final yr they adopted journalists who remained in Russia, persevering with to cowl Navalny’s ordeal, accusing them of working along with his group.
Antonina Favorskaya, a reporter for the Sota Imaginative and prescient Media Outlet, was arrested final March on suspicion of “participation in an extremist group.” She was later accused of filming footage Navalny’s colleagues used on the media platform.
Favluskaya, a uncommon reporter attending Navalny’s court docket listening to shortly earlier than his demise. shot His final identified video addressing the court docket by way of video hyperlinks from his Arctic jail colony on the day he died.
Russian authorities later arrested three extra journalists, all of which went to trial collectively. One of many accused, Artyom Kriger, mentioned he and others have been accused of filming an interview on the streets of Russia for Navalny’s YouTube channel.
There aren’t any verdicts but.
Moscow additionally pursued accusations towards Navalny’s attorneys.
Final month, a court docket about 80 miles east of Moscow sentenced three attorneys to Navalny in a five-and-a-half-year jail time period for passing correspondence from imprisoned politicians to allies. The court docket discovered that it was equal to “collaborating” in Mr. Navalny’s unlawful motion.
Navalny’s attorneys argued that it was being examined for routine authorized work, together with passing communications on behalf of incarcerated purchasers.
A lawsuit making an attempt to punish peculiar Russians for making donations to Mr Navalny’s staff was additionally born in court docket, simply as small as $3.
Russian authorities have charged at the very least 15 folks with funding extremist organizations to ship donations to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund. Up to now few months, native media have reported such accusations towards medical doctors in Bisk, IT engineers exterior St. Petersburg, and UFA political activists.
“These could have been the switch of 500 rubles to the Anti-Corruption Fund previously,” mentioned Kotov, a 39-year-old activist who works for a human rights group, referring to the quantity, referring to the quantity. It is a bit over the greenback.
By the point the donation case was opened towards him, Kotov had lengthy been on the radar of Russian authorities to oppose Kremlin abuse.
In 2019 he was one of many first folks to be arrested beneath new Russian legal guidelines that restricted freedom of meeting with “unauthorized protests.” (The legislation laid the inspiration for an nearly full protest ban that later helped soften Russia in the course of the warfare.)
He spent 18 months in jail, most of which was spent in strict services within the Vladimir area of Russia about 60 miles east of Moscow.
Shortly after Kotov’s launch, Navalny returned to Russia and recovered from deadly poisoning overseas in Germany. Inside weeks, Navarry ended up in the identical jail the place Kotov was imprisoned.
That yr, a Russian court docket banned and settled Navalny’s anti-corruption fund, labeling it with extremists. Management criminalized fundraising from peculiar Russians who had floated the group for a few years.
Navalny’s high aide took him to YouTube I made an pressing plea For donations to maintain the group alive, saying that supporters have resolved a safe system for transferring funds to non-Russian financial institution accounts.
Kotov felt a private connection to see how Navarri landed in the identical jail the place he was struggling. He signed as much as donate 500 rubles a month, believing that the brand new platform was protected.
“It was my gesture to indicate that I did not conform to liquidate the Anti-Corruption Fund. “I needed him to proceed doing what he does.”
Six months later, in January 2022, Kotov grew to become nervous and stopped giving. However by then it was too late. A part of the transaction revealed international financial institution info from the Anti-Corruption Fund to Russian authorities by together with reference to the group’s title within the switch information. Donations weren’t protected.
The next month, Putin invaded Ukraine and urged Kotov to exit on the streets of Moscow and protest the warfare. He was quickly arrested and spent the next month in jail. Two and a half years later, authorities got here to his house and arrested him with six 500 rubles donations he had made to Mr Navalny’s fund. He pleaded responsible.
The court docket launched him beneath home arrest. At first, he thought he would keep in Russia. Different donors charged with the identical crime have been fined.
Nevertheless, in December, the Moscow courthouse Discovered Ivan S. Tishchenko, a 46-year-old cardiac surgeon, is discovered responsible of donating 3,500 rubles to Navalny’s basis. His sentence: 4 years jail.
Dr. Tishenko had joined repeated donations to the Anti-Corruption Fund earlier than Russian authorities banned it as an extremist in 2021.
Natalia Tyconova, Dr. Tishenko’s lawyer; defined “It is too harsh for many who by no means intend to avoid wasting hundreds of lives and undoubtedly hurt Russia’s constitutional orders.”
Kotov, cautious of returning to Russian prisons, fled to Lithuania this yr.
In an interview from there, Kotov defined how Navalny expressed his hope that “President Putin is not going to be immortal, however sooner or later this regime will finish.”
“Alexei Navalny was an emblem of the attractive Russia of the long run and a cheerful Russia of the long run,” he mentioned. “When that image disappeared, I started to really feel even worse.”
“However we’re nonetheless alive,” he added. “You’ll be able to’t hand over.”
