The Kremlin points to Alexei Navalny’s reputation, as the opposition leader was sent to a prison colony in Russia, a trip to a “gray zone” where supporters say he will need maximum international support to ensure your safety.
For years, Navalny was a ghost in the Russian state media, his name was studiously absent from the lips of senior officials and news presenters. One of the favorite games of the opposition was to write his name on a snow bank; often municipal workers arrived shortly afterwards to sweep it.
But now he has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison on embezzlement charges, the Kremlin and its supporters have highlighted his role in nationalist politics in the 2000s and used the courts to portray him as unpatriotic.
A month after his arrest, he has been convicted of slander against a World War II veteran, a crime that added no time to his conviction but turned out to be an unfavorable piece of first-rate news programs. hour.
And then, in what some Amnesty International employees have described as a capitulation to a “coordinated campaign,” the human rights organization stopped calling him an “awareness-raising,” a decision the Allies made. to say he would ease the pressure on Russia to release him immediately.
“The key to trying to get it out is to apply the most pressure nationally … but also internationally,” said Vladimir Ashurkov, a close ally of Navalny who has called for sanctions against Russian officials and businessmen. “Removing her status in such a public way naturally harms Alexei’s reputation … and spreads malice and doubt, and that’s what the authors were trying to achieve.”
Amnesty has denied any pressure on the decision and said “the Russian authorities’ propaganda is recognized as such.” But figures such as Margarita Simonyan, the head of the state-funded RT news network, have turned the victory around, writing that “our columnist used concrete examples that reminded everyone that [Navalny] he is a Nazi ”.
The decision came days before Navalny’s transfer from Moscow prison to a prison colony somewhere in Russia began, a trip during which he will disappear for days or even weeks before his location is revealed. . Russia has ignored a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights to release him because his safety in a prison could not be guaranteed.
Amnesty has said it will continue to push for Navalny’s release, but supporters say his move has already caused real damage. Some, such as Navalny’s ally Leonid Volkov, said the organization’s leadership was “inadequate.” Others said they would demand that the organization return the statute to Navalny.
“What they’re trying to do is cut off international support … to create doubts about whether we should support this guy. Is he a good guy?” Said Jamison Firestone, a lawyer who had previously worked with Sergei Magnitsky, a tax lawyer who died in a Russian prison in 2009, and who has pushed for sanctions against Russian officials.
The question is whether a series of videos from the early 2000s produced by Navalny against migrant workers, as well as his refusal to apologize for them, should minimize the public campaign for his release from prison, driven by the his investigations into corruption and to lead protests against Vladimir Putin.
Amnesty has said its decision was internal and it focuses on this to distract from obtaining Navalny’s release. But in a phone call with a Russian joker posing as Volkov, senior Amnesty officials admitted that the decision “did a lot of harm” and that “perhaps we have done more harm than good right now.”
Navalny began his long transfer to a colony of Russian prisons on Thursday evening in a process called stages, where even close relatives can lose track of inmates for days or weeks.
His lawyer, Vladimir Kobzev, said he did not know where Navalny was being sent.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s former press secretary, said: “It’s always a gray area when no one knows where they’re taking him or how long it will take. Neither his relatives, nor his lawyers, nor even the prisoners themselves have information “It’s hell on its own, but in Alexei’s case, just like being in prison is a threat to his life.”