Even in death, the Kremlin looks at Navalny as a permanent threat

Six months after the death of opposition leader Alexei a. Navalney Russian prison Above the Arctic circle, Konstantin A. Kotova woke up to find his apartment in Moscow under the siege.

After breaking the door, the Russian officers began confiscating everything related to Mr. Navalny, all the way to the presidential -term campaign button for the activist 2018 and a book written by his brother. Then they arrested Mr. Kotov and took him away.

His alleged crime: donating about 30 dollars three years ago to the Mr. Navalny Fund Anti -Corruption, which the Kremlin considers an extremist group.

Death one year ago from Mr. Navalny, Who once led tens of thousands of Russians against the Kremlin in the streets of MoscowI really dealt with Russia The besieged opposition. Many of this movement fled abroad amid a campaign against the opposition, which began before President Vladimir F. Putin to Ukraine in 2022, but he escalated with the war.

Even with Mitt El -Sayed Navalney and his movement in Thaters, the authorities were chasing people with ties with him and his foundation inside Russia. Some see ongoing judicial prosecutions as a repressive Russian machine working on the automated pilot. Others see Moscow, who looks at the legacy of the opposition as a permanent threat.

Sergey S. Samirnov, editor -in -chief of the media field, “they seem to do so more than usual, and not as a new campaign.”

But there are also senior senior officers in the FSB, the local intelligence service in Russia, who see themselves as suffocating under the political ground that exposes the same risks to the Kremlin that was presented to the Bolsheviks that were presented before the Russian monarchy was prolonged in 1917. Security Corporation.

“The comparison between the Bolsheviks and the Russian revolution is included in the heads of these people,” said Mr. Slazov by phone from London. “Caesarean Russia collapsed due to a major war and a major political party working underground.”

The authorities focused on a wide range of goals.

Last year, they went after the journalists who remained in Russia and continued to cover the plight of Mr. Navalny, accusing them of cooperation with his organization.

Antonina Favorskaya, a correspondent for the media outlet in Sota, was arrested last March on charges of “participating in an extremist organization.” She was accused of filming shots later by Mr. Navalny’s partners on their media platforms.

Nader correspondent to attend the court listening sessions for Mr. Navalni shortly before his death, Mrs. Favorskaya shot The last known video clip addresses the court via a video link from the prison colony in the Arctic on the day before to die.

Later, the Russian authorities arrested three other journalists and all put them on the trial together. One of the defendants, one of the defendants, said that and others accused of photographing street interviews in Russia to Mr. Navalny on YouTube.

There was no judgment yet.

Moscow has also followed charges against Mr. Navalny’s lawyer.

The court is about 80 miles east of Moscow last month Heal Three lawyers for Mr. Navalny reach five and a half years in prison for passing from correspondence from the imprisoned politician to his allies. The court ruled that it was a “participation” in Mr. Navalny’s illegal movement.

Mr. Navalny’s lawyers insisted that they are trials of routine legal action that includes passing contacts on behalf of the imprisoned agents.

Issues that seek to punish the ordinary Russians to make donations to the team of Mr. Navalny, some of them, have been launched in $ 3, in the courts.

The Russian authorities have tried at least 15 people for financing an extremist organization to send donations to the Navalny Fund to combat corruption. In the past few months, the local media has reported such accusations against a BIYSK doctor, an information technology engineer from a suburb of St. Petersburg and a UFA political activist.

“These are simply people who may have just transferred 500 rubles to the Anti -Corruption Fund,” said Mr. Kotov, a 39 -year -old activist and works for the Human Rights Organization. Slightly more than $ 5.

By the time when the donation case was opened against him, Mr. Kotov has long been on the radar of the Russian authorities because of its mobilization against the Kremlin violations.

In 2019, he was one of the first people to be arrested under a new Russian law that restricts the freedom of assembly in “unbalanced protests”. (The law set the basic prohibition of the near protest, which later helped calm Russia in wartime.)

He spent 18 months in prison, most of it in a harsh facility in the Vladimir region of Russia, about 60 miles east of Moscow.

Shortly after the launch of Mr. Kotov, Mr. Navalney returned to Russia, after recovering abroad in Germany Semi -deadly poisoning. Within weeks, Mr. Navalny will end in the same prison where Mr. Kotov was imprisoned.

That year, a Russian court and the liquidation of Mr. Navalny Fund to combat corruption prohibited it, describing it as extremism. The ruling made the crime of collecting funds from the ordinary Russians who kept in full swing on his feet.

Take the best assistants of Mr. Navalny to YouTube and He made an urgent call To obtain donations to preserve the organization alive, saying they have put a safe system for supporters to transfer money into a bank account outside Russia.

Mr. Kotov saw how Mr. Navalney landed in the same prison he suffered, and he felt a personal relationship. Subscribe to submit a donation of 500 rubles per month, believing that the new platform is safe.

“My gesture was to show that I did not agree with the liquidation of the Anti -Corruption Fund and that I supported Alexei Navalny, who was in prison,” said Mr. Kotov. “I wanted his activities to continue.”

Half a year later, in January 2022, Mr. Kotov felt tense and stopped donations. But by that time, it was too late. Some transactions revealed the foreign bank’s information to the Anti -Corruption Fund for the Russian authorities by including a reference to the group’s name in the transportation data. The donations were not safe.

The following month, Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine, prompting Mr. Kotov to go out in the streets of Moscow and protest against the war. He was quickly arrested and spent the following month in prison. Two and a half years later, the authorities came to his apartment and arrested him due to the six 500 donations he submitted to the Mr. Navalny Fund. Acknowledged that he is guilty.

A court was arrested at home. Initially, I think he would stay in Russia. Other donors accused of the same crime have been disposed of fines.

But then, in December, a court in Moscow Find Ivan S. Tishnko, a 46 -year -old heart surgeon, guilty to send 3,500 rubles in donations to Mr. Navalny Foundation. His penalty: four years in prison.

Dr. Tishnko participated in the frequent donations of the Anti -Corruption Fund a long time before the Russian authorities banned as extremist in 2021.

doctor. Tishchenko lawyer, Natalia Tikhunova, Described “It is very harsh for a person who saved thousands of lives and certainly has never aimed at causing any harm to the constitutional system of Russia.”

Mr. Kotov, beware of returning to the Russian prison, fled to Lithuania this year.

In an interview from there, Mr. Kotov described how Mr. Navalney represented the hope that “Putin is not immortal, and that this system will end at some point.”

He said: “Alexei Navalney was a symbol of beautiful Russia in the future, which is happy Russia in the future.” “When this symbol disappeared, I started to feel much worse.”

“But we are still living,” he added. “We cannot surrender.”