Vladimir Putin’s political enemy, sentenced to 19 years in prison for “extremism”, died in a prison in the Russian Arctic on Friday.
“Three days ago, Vladimir Putin killed my husband. (…) With him, he wanted to kill our hope, our freedom, our future.” In a video broadcast on Monday February 19, Yulia Navalnaïa, widow of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, promised to continue her late husband’s fight and called on her supporters to join her. “I will continue for our country, with you. And I call on you all to stand close to me”she said.
Alexeï Navalny, number one adversary of the Russian president, died Friday in a prison in the Russian Arctic, where he was serving a 19-year sentence. His death at the age of 47 is a reminder of the repression that fell on critical voices against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Before him, other voices critical of the Kremlin had also lost their lives. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in 2006 in the lobby of her building in Moscow and former governor Boris Nemtsov was assassinated on a bridge near the Kremlin in February 2015. After the death of Alexeï Navalny, what remains is he in opposition to Russian power? Franceinfo looks back at the main faces of this opposition to Vladimir Putin, most of them in prison or in exile.
Undesirables imprisoned
Vladimir Kara-Mourza. One of Vladimir Putin’s main critics, Vladimir Kara-Mourza, was notably a journalist, advisor to Boris Nemtsov and candidate for a seat in the Russian Parliament in 2003. Last April (then in July on appeal), he was convicted to a sentence of 25 years in prison. Aged 41, he was found guilty of “high treason”, “false information” about the army and illegally working for an organization “undesirable”. He denounced the Russian invasion in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and was convicted following a closed-door trial. His sentence is the heaviest handed down against a major opponent in recent years. Vladimir Kara-Mourza came close to death after two poisonings in 2015 and 2017, which he blamed on Russian power. In September he was sent to a high-speed penal colony. security of Omsk, in Siberia, then placed in solitary confinement for at least four months in January. Relatives of Vladimir Kara-Mourza are worried about his fragile health, the opponent suffering from a nervous condition called polyneuropathy due to his poisonings.
Ilia Yashin. Another face of the Russian opposition, Ilia Yashin, 39, was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison at the end of 2022 (then on appeal in April) for having denounced “the killing of civilians” in the Ukrainian town of Boucha. The Russian army has been accused of murders of civilians and sexual violence, among other abuses, which Moscow denies. Ilia Iachine was found guilty, in this context, of having disseminated “false information” about the Russian army. The opponent, former elected official and then president of the municipal council of a Moscow district, notably founded the liberal Solidarnost party with Boris Nemtsov and Garry Kasparov.
Andrei Pivovarov. In the summer of 2022, Andrei Pivovarov was sentenced to four years in prison for campaigning in favor of a banned organization. He was sentenced “with ban on socio-political activities for a period of eight years”, according to his team. A little over a year earlier, on May 31, 2021, the police arrested him as he prepared to leave Saint Petersburg to go to Warsaw in Poland. The activist and human rights defender had just announced the self-dissolution of his organization, Open Russia, linked to the exiled opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He expected the movement to be classified as “undesirable”, exposing its members to legal action.
Detractors in exile
Mikhail Khodorkovsky. A former oil tycoon, the wealthy Mikhail Khodorkovsky opposed Vladimir Putin in the early 2000s. A powerful businessman, he was convicted and imprisoned for nearly ten years, from 2004 to 2013, for tax evasion and flight. His trials were then denounced by the European Court of Human Rights. Since his release in 2013, the former oligarch has taken refuge in London (United Kingdom), from where he finances opposition platforms. He notably supported the Open Russia organization, self-dissolved by Andreï Pivovarov in 2021.
Gary Kasparov. Former world chess champion, Garry Kasparov has long opposed Vladimir Putin. As recalled The Parisian, he was briefly imprisoned in 2007 after participating in a demonstration against the Russian president. Gary Kasparov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky were both designated as “foreign agents” in Russia, a label that can lead to heavy sanctions and is widely used against opponents, journalists and human rights defenders in Russia. The Russian Justice Ministry said the two exiled opponents had “sources” in Ukraine for the financing of their activities.
Mikhail Kasyanov. He too is now a “foreign agent” in the eyes of the Russian authorities. Mikhail Kasianov, Vladimir Putin’s Prime Minister in the early 2000s, then became very critical of the Russian president. Before the start of the war in Ukraine, he headed the People’s Freedom Party. He announced in June 2022 that he had left Russia. The Ministry of Justice accuses him of having “opposed to the special military operation in Ukraine” and to be “member of the Russian anti-war committee”.
Gennady and Dmitri Gudkov. Former KGB officer, Gennady Goudkov was a deputy from 2001 to 2012. In exile since 2019, he has become one of the main figures of the opposition to the Kremlin in France. The former elected official notably co-founded the Russian Democratic Club. His son, Dmitri Gudkov, is also an opponent of Russian power and a former member of parliament. A year ago, he was in turn designated as a “foreign agent” for having “called upon to supply weapons to Ukraine” and to “introduce restrictive measures against Russia”, according to the Russian Ministry of Justice. Like his father, Dmitri Gudkov also left Russia.
Some critical voices still free
Oleg Orlov. He is one of the few opponents of the Kremlin still free. Oleg Orlov is a manager of the NGO Memorial, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. The organization, dissolved at the end of 2021, defends human rights and investigates Soviet and more recent repressions in Russia. Aged 70, Oleg Orlov was sentenced in the fall to a fine of 150,000 rubles, or 1,400 euros at the exchange rate at the time, for denouncing the Russian assault in Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Justice also placed him on the list of “foreign agents”, ensuring that he “opposed the special military operation in Ukraine”. Oleg Orlov risks a new trial and faces up to three years in prison.
Boris Nadezhdine. Little known to the general public, Boris Nadejdine presented his candidacy for the Russian presidential election, which will be held from March 15 to 17. Municipal elected official in Dolgoproudny, on the outskirts of Moscow, he opposed Vladimir Putin and the conflict in Ukraine. The electoral commission finally invalidated the candidacy of Boris Nadejdine, the only opposition figure running for the vote.
Evgeni Roizman. Another critic of Vladimir Putin opposed to the war in Ukraine, Evgeni Roizman, 60, is a former mayor of the city of Yekaterinburg. Last May, he was found guilty of “discredited the army” Russian and was ordered to pay a fine of 260,000 rubles, approximately 3,000 euros at the exchange rate of that period. He faced several years in prison.