Russia ramps up crackdown
MOSCOW — Russian authorities charged Alexei Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, with theft on Tuesday, threatening him with a 10-year prison sentence as the Kremlin ramps up a crackdown on dissent. Navalny rejected the charges as baseless.
The 36-year-old anti-corruption crusader and popular blogger has played a key role in rallying Russia’s young Internet generation against Putin’s rule. Over the winter, the lawyer spearheaded a series of rallies in Moscow that drew up to 100,000 people to the streets ahead of the March vote that handed Putin a third presidential term.
Putin on Tuesday appeared to try to mollify the opposition without actually giving ground, saying his notorious likening of protesters’ white ribbons to condoms wasn’t meant as an insult to demonstrators.
But authorities showed Tuesday they are determined to crack down on any protests outside formally approved demonstrations, arresting 25 people at a rally in central Moscow.
The State Investigative Committee said Tuesday that it suspects Navalny of organizing a scheme to steal assets from a state timber company worth 16 million rubles (about half a million dollars). He was ordered not to leave Moscow as the committee pursues an investigation against him.
Navalny told reporters “the charges are absolutely absurd.”
Since Putin’s re-election, the government has struck back at the opposition, arresting some activists and using legislation to try to curb its activities.
Parliament, controlled by Putin loyalists, passed a bill that raised fines 150-fold for people taking part in unsanctioned protests.
Another law passed in July requires non-governmental groups receiving funding from abroad and engaging in political activity to register as foreign agents.
In one example of the tougher line on dissent, three Russian feminist rockers have gone on trial for performing a “punk prayer” against Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral. They face up to seven years in prison, and human rights groups have condemned the trial, calling the women prisoners of conscience.
The probe against Navalny focuses on events dating to 2009 when he served as an adviser to a provincial governor in the Kirov region. Investigators allege that he colluded with the head of a state timber company and a trader to rob it. A previous probe into similar allegations was closed earlier this year for lack of evidence.