(Moscow) The main imprisoned Russian opponents, including Alexeï Navalny, announced Thursday that they will carry out a symbolic one-day hunger strike on October 30 to draw attention to their fate and their conditions of detention, in the midst of repression in the country.
“We call on all political prisoners and those who want to express their support to join this action and refuse to eat on this day,” six Russian opponents said in a joint letter posted on social networks.
Among them, the charismatic anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, recently sentenced to 19 years in prison in a new case, the long-time opponent of the Kremlin Vladimir Kara-Mourza, who received a very heavy sentence of 25 years in prison, as well as the former Moscow municipal deputy Ilia Yashin, sentenced to 8 years for having denounced Russian crimes in Ukraine.
These major opponents want to revive “political prisoner day”, which Soviet dissidents created in the 1970s under the USSR.
This then aimed to obtain recognition of the status of political prisoner and to demand better detention conditions.
“The world’s dictators and tyrants never tire of emphasizing their closeness. It would be right for political prisoners from all countries to show solidarity,” the opponents further indicated in the letter.
Russia has been facing increasing repression of critical voices for several years, which significantly accelerated after the start of the Russian assault on Ukraine in February 2022.
Almost all major opponents have been imprisoned or driven into exile, and thousands of ordinary Russians have been prosecuted for expressing their disagreement with the Kremlin, including on social media.
According to Russia’s main human rights organization, Memorial, itself a victim of repression, the country currently has 604 political prisoners.