MOSCOW – When the team of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged people to go out into their residential courtyards and flash their mobile phone flashes in a show of unity, many responded with jokes and skepticism. After two weekends of protests across the country, the new protest format looked like a retreat.
But not to the Russian authorities, who moved vigorously to extinguish the lighted protests scheduled for Sunday.
Officials accused Navalny’s allies of acting on NATO instructions. Kremlin-backed television channels warned that flashlight rallies were part of major uprisings around the world. State news agencies quoted anonymous sources as saying a terrorist group was plotting attacks during unapproved mass protests.
Attempts at suppression represent a change of tactics for the authorities who once tried to weaken Navalny’s influence by erasing him.
Kremlin-controlled television channels tended to largely ignore the protests convened by Navalny. Russian President Vladimir Putin has never mentioned his most prominent critic. State news agencies referred to the anti-corruption politician and investigator as “a blogger” in the rare stories they published mentioning him.
“Navalny went from a person whose name cannot be mentioned to the main topic of discussion” on state television, Maria Pevchikh, head of research at the Navalny foundations for the fight against corruption, said on Friday.
Pevchikh credited Navalny’s latest exposure for the sudden surge in attention. The two-hour video of its founding alleging that a lavish Black Sea palace was built for Putin due to elaborate corruption has been viewed more than 111 million times on YouTube since he left. publish on January 19th.
The video was released two days after Navalny was arrested on his return to Russia from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from the nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin. The Russian government denies any involvement and has said it has no evidence that Navalny was poisoned.
Although the high-profile arrest and subsequent exposition dealt a double blow to the authorities, political analyst and former Kremlin speech writer Abbas Gallyamov says Navalny and his activity no longer make sense. off the airwaves to deprive it of additional publicity.
“The fact that this strategy has changed suggests that the pro-government television audience somehow receives information about Navalny’s activities through other channels, he acknowledges, is interested in his work and, in this sense, maintains the silence makes no sense, “Gallyamov said.
Weekend protests in dozens of cities last month over Navalny’s arrest represented the biggest popular discontent in recent years and appeared to have shaken the Kremlin.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.
Television channels broadcast images of empty squares in cities where protests were announced and claimed there were few people. Some reports portrayed the police as polite and moderate, claiming that officers had helped people with disabilities cross busy streets, handed out masks to protesters and offered them hot tea.
Once the protests ended and Navalny’s ally Leonid Volkov announced a pause until the spring, the Kremlin media reported that grassroots flash mobs titled “Putin is our president” began to sweep the country. The state-run Rossiya 24 news channel aired videos of different cities of people dancing patriotic songs and waving Russian flags, describing them as a genuine expression of support for Putin.
Several independent online outlets reported that instructions to record videos in support of Putin came from the Kremlin and the ruling United Russia party, and that people featured in some of the recordings were invited to shoot with false pretensions.
Russian President Dmitry Peskov’s spokesman said the Kremlin had nothing to do with pro-Putin videos.
After Navalny’s team released their video about the palace allegedly built for Putin, the Rossiya state channel aired its own Navalny exhibition. Anchor Dmitry Kiselev said that while working on research in Germany, Navalny lived “in the luxury he so despises.”
The journalist sent a report on the alleged lifestyle that the politician maintained while filming abroad inside a house that Navalny rented, but did not get any high-end objects in the two-story building, which had several bedrooms and a small pool.
He noted “two sofas, a TV, fresh fruit on the table” in the living room and “a kitchen with coffee maker” and described a bedroom as “luxurious,” though it didn’t look very different from a room. in a business hotel.
In recent days, official media coverage has focused on lantern protest plans in this weekend’s courtyards. Reports widely cited the publication on social media of Navalny Volkov’s ally announcing the event and accusing him of acting on the instructions of his Western managers, pointing to an online conference with European officials to which he went. participate the day before.
The political talk show “60 Minutes” spent almost half an hour on the subject and described the flashlight as an idea from a manual on revolutions. He issued images of bright lantern protesters during the 2014 Maidan protests in Ukraine, mass rallies in Belarus last summer and other uprisings around the world.
On Thursday, state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti reported, citing anonymous sources, that a Syrian terrorist group was training insurgents for possible terrorist attacks on Russian cities “in places of mass rallies.”
The reports made no reference to any specific protests. The Attorney General’s Office and the Russian Interior Ministry also did not issue public warnings on Thursday against “unauthorized public events,” although the ministry mentioned the events “scheduled for the nearest time.”
“The Kremlin is afraid of the action of the lanterns,” because such a peaceful and joyful event would allow the opposition to establish a relationship with new supporters who are not prepared to be more visible and involved in the protests, Volkov said in a YouTube Video.
He suggested that the intense response to the announcement helped dispel skepticism about the yard demonstrations.
“I saw a lot of posts on social media (saying):‘ When Navalny’s headquarters announced the flashlight rally, I thought what nonsense … But when I saw the Kremlin’s reaction, I realized they were right to do so. -ho “.