The last remaining voices of the Russian opposition

Russian political activist and former journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, 41, was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in prison for publicly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was convicted of treason and spreading “false” information about the Russian military among other charges. According to the Moscow Times, Kara-Murza’s defence attorney has fled the country over fears of imprisonment.  

Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin, 39, lost his appeal on Wednesday against an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence that was handed down last year. The longtime ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny was also found guilty of spreading “false information” regarding the war in Ukraine.  

Both men will soon join Navalny – as well as another 527 political prisoners jailed since February 2022, according to the OVD-Info rights monitor – behind bars. Meanwhile, US journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges, remains in pre-trial detention after his appeal was rejected on Tuesday.  

As the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissenting voices intensifies, Russian lawmakers on Tuesday approved a bill that would see life sentences handed to those convicted of treason amid a wave of toughened censorship laws.

A law criminalising “discrediting Russian armed forces” was adopted on March 4 last year; in the three days that followed, more than 60 cases were opened against those accused of violating the new law, “the vast majority” of them peaceful anti-war protesters, according to Human Rights Watch. 

The Russian opposition, weakened by a recent series of imprisonments and forced exile, is on the verge of extinction. There are almost “no options for expressing criticism” in Russia, where repression has reached a scale “unequalled since the end of World War II”, according to Russia expert Cécile Vaissié of Rennes-II University. But she says a few voices remain, whose presence in Russia carries “symbolic weight”.     

Last remaining voices  

One of those last voices belongs to Yashin’s lawyer, Maria Eismont, who also worked as part of Kara-Murza’s defence team. Eismont, 47, is one of the last liberal lawyers left in Russia willing to defend opponents of Vladimir Putin’s regime. Decrying the harshness of the court decision on Kara-Murza’s case, Eismont vowed to appeal the 25-year sentence, the longest ever handed to a political opponent. 

Russian human rights activist and former chairman of the now-disbanded Memorial Human Rights Centre, Yan Rachinsky, called the sentence “monstrous”, adding that it reflected the authorities’ fear of criticism and “marked a difference between today’s Russia and civilised countries”.  

In late March, an investigation was launched into Rachinsky’s colleague and Memorial co-founder Oleg Orlov over accusations of discrediting Russian forces in Ukraine. A March 21 statement from Memorial said Orlov was detained and questioned after police searched his home before subsequently being released. 

Although Memorial was shut down by the authorities in December 2021, Rachinsky and Orlov remain in the country. Hailing them as “Russian heroes”, Vaissié said they offer a courageous example at the risk of “being arrested at any moment”. 

Meanwhile, others are also facing imprisonment. The former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Vadimovich Roizman, spent 14 days behind bars in March over a social media post relating to Alexei Navalny. Currently under surveillance, Roizman is awaiting trial on charges of “discrediting” the Russian army, for which he could face at least three years in prison. Despite the looming threat, Roizman remains active on social media and continues to participate in the city without drugs narcotics treatment programme that he helped expand during his time in office. 

When artists speak out 

Dissenting voices are also being heard in artistic circles. The frontman of the 1980s rock band DDT, Yuri Shevchuk, has also spoken out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

During the band’s concert in May last year, Shevchuk told a crowd of 8,000 fans that “the motherland, my friends, is not the president’s ass that has to be slobbered and kissed all the time. The motherland is an impoverished babushka at the train station selling potatoes.” 

The outspoken Kremlin critic’s continued presence in the country alone “sends a clear signal to Russians opposing the war, which reminds us that love for one’s country doesn’t equate to support for the ruling power”, Vaissié said. 

After a police interrogation, Shevchuk was subsequently fined 50,000 rubles ($815) for his on-stage protest, according to the Moscow Times.  

Other artists have also chosen to remain in Russia to protest the current regime, including rights activist and poet Elena Sannikova, who publicly recited a poem evoking Soviet-era repressions on Monday at the Sakharov Center. Labeled as a foreign agent by Russian authorities, the centre is being forced to vacate its premises by the end of the month after nearly 30 years in operation. At the centre’s last event, Sannikova told moscovites that “David will defeat Goliath, and a new dawn will break.” 

Not quite silenced yet 

While most independent organisations have left Russia since the Ukraine war broke out, human rights defence and media group OVD-Info continues to operate in the country. Founded in 2011 by journalists Grigory Okhotin and programmer Daniil Beilinson, the organisation continues to collect data on local political repression despite part of its team fleeing the country. 

Even Navalny continues to speak out against Putin’s regime from his prison cell, thanks to messages passed on by his lawyers. Denouncing Kara-Murza’s 25-year prison sentence as “shameless and simply fascist”, Nalvany said in an audio recording released by his team that he was “deeply outraged” by the court’s decision.  

Citing speeches made by Kara-Murza and Yashin during their respective trials, Vaissié said “ethical” statements like these represent a “way of setting an example”. Before his sentencing, Yashin addressed Putin directly as he urged the Russian president to “stop this madness immediately”.  

“You must admit that your policies regarding Ukraine have been an error,” he implored. “You must get the Russian troops out of Ukraine and start working on a diplomatic resolution of this conflict. Remember that every new day at war means new casualties. Enough!”

Kara-Murza, meanwhile, remained hopeful in his last statement to the court before the verdict, when defendants usually ask for acquittal. Kara-Murza said his fate had already been decided, but that “the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate”.  

“This day will come as inevitably as spring follows even the coldest winter. And then our society will open its eyes and be horrified by what terrible crimes were committed on its behalf. From this realization, from this reflection, the long, difficult but vital path toward the recovery and restoration of Russia, its return to the community of civilized countries, will begin.”

This article was translated from the original in French.