The Kremlin is targeting Alexei Navalny’s reputation because the opposition leader was sent to a Russian prison colony, a trip to a “gray area” where supporters say he will need maximum international support to ensure his safety.
For years Navalny has been a ghost in the Russian state media, his name absent from the studios on the lips of senior officials and news chiefs. A favorite game among the opposition was to write their name on a snowboard.
But now that he has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison on charges of embezzlement, the Kremlin and its supporters have emphasized his role in nationalist politics since the 2000s and used the courts to describe him as unpatriotic.
In the month since his arrest, he was convicted of slandering a World War II veteran, a crime that never added to his sentence but made an ugly appearance on news programs in time.
And then, in what some Amnesty International staff described as a capitulation to a “coordinated campaign,” the human rights organization stopped describing him as a “prisoner of conscience,” a decision the Allies said would exempt them. pressure on Russia to release him immediately. .
“The key to trying to get him out is to put the most pressure internally … but also internationally,” said Vladimir Ashurkov, a close associate of Navalny, who called for sanctions against Russian officials and businessmen. “That his status has been taken so publicly, this naturally damages Alexei’s reputation … and spreads malice and doubt, and that’s what the perpetrators tried to do.”
Amnesty denied that it was pressured into the decision, saying that “the propaganda of the Russian authorities is recognized as such”. But characters such as Margarita Simonyan, head of the state-funded RT news network, took a winning streak, 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 a Moscow prison to a prison colony somewhere in Russia began, a journey during which he would disappear for days or even weeks before his location was revealed. Russia has ignored a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights to release him because his safety could not be ensured in a prison.
Amnesty has said it will continue to press for Navalny’s release, but supporters say his move has already done real damage. Some, such as Navalny’s ally Leonid Volkov, said the organization’s leadership was “unfit.” Others said they would ask the organization to return Navalny’s status.
“What they are trying to do is cut off international support for him … to cast doubt on whether we should support this guy. Is he a good guy? Said Jamison Firestone, a lawyer who previously worked with Sergei Magnitsky, a tax lawyer who died in a Russian prison in 2009 and imposed sanctions on Russian officials.
The question is whether a series of early 2000s videos by Navalny opposing migrant workers – as well as his refusal to apologize for them – should downplay the public campaign for his release from prison, which was conducted. of his investigations into corruption and for leading protests against Vladimir Putin.
Amnesty said its decision was internal, and its focus was on diverting attention from securing Navalny’s release. However, in a phone call with a Russian farce pretending to be Volkov, senior Amnesty officials acknowledged that the decision “did a lot of damage” and that “it may have done more harm than good at this time.” ”.
Navalny began his long transfer to a Russian prison colony on Thursday night in a trial called etapirovaniye, where even close relatives can lose track of prisoners for days or weeks.
His lawyer, Vladimir Kobzev, said he did not know where Navalny was being sent.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s press secretary, said: “It is always a gray area when no one knows where it is taken or how long it will last. Neither his relatives, nor his lawyers and even often the prisoners themselves have any information. It’s hell in itself, but in Alexei’s case, just like in prison, it’s a threat to his life. “