NEW YORK (AP) — When Alexei Navalny was arrested in January 2021, tens of thousands of Russians stuffed the streets in protest, demanding that the major Kremlin critic be produced and chanting slogans in opposition to President Vladimir Putin. 1000’s were arrested.

Since then, Putin has unleashed the harshest crackdown given that the period of the Soviet Union: Navalny was imprisoned and his firm outlawed. His associates and other activists had been possibly prosecuted, fled the country or experienced their arms tied by draconian new legislation. Impartial information retailers have been blocked and social media platforms banned.

And now, Russia has despatched its military into Ukraine, the greatest invasion in Europe since Earth War II.

But while the Kremlin has labored really hard to crush political dissent and opposition to the war, flickers of defiance have emerged.

Antiwar marches of protesters chanting “No to war!” transpired in Moscow, St. Petersburg and in other places immediately after the Feb. 24 invasion, with additional than 15,000 men and women detained, according to the OVD-Facts legal rights team that tracks political arrests.

A silent demonstrator in the metropolis of Nizhny Novgorod displayed a blank indicator and was immediately detained by law enforcement.

A are living night information broadcast on Russia’s condition Tv set was interrupted March 14 by a woman who walked guiding the anchor and held up a handmade poster protesting the war in English and Russian. OVD-Information recognized her as Marina Ovsyannikova, an worker of the station, who was taken into custody and fined.

Navalny remained unbowed at a demo held in the penal colony the place he is serving a 2 1/2-year sentence. On Tuesday, he was convicted on fraud and contempt of court fees and specified 9 a long time — a transfer that was viewed as an endeavor to preserve Putin’s major foe behind bars for as extended as probable.

The 45-year-previous corruption fighter, who in 2020 survived a poisoning with a nerve agent that he blames on the Kremlin, claimed on Fb in a sardonic remark that was posted by his crew: “My room flight is having a bit extended than envisioned.”

Navalny ally Ilya Yashin, who has vowed to remain in Russia, also spoke out versus the increased jail time.

“Of study course, nine many years is a stiff sentence,” Yashin said on Fb. “Rapists, burglars and murderers in Russia generally get significantly less. … But in truth (the sentence) doesn’t mean just about anything, simply because every person understands: Alexei will commit as a great deal time at the rear of bars as Putin will sit in the Kremlin.”

Addressing Putin, Yashin added sarcastically, “You’re very the optimist.”

Navalny’s demo, which started a 7 days ahead of Russian troops rolled into Ukraine, prompted a modest act of defiance by just one of the witnesses for the prosecution. Fyodor Gorozhanko, a previous activist in Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, who has since left Russia, testified that he experienced been coerced to give proof from the opposition leader.

Navalny’s foundation and a nationwide community of regional workplaces were being outlawed very last yr as extremist and ceased operating. The Kremlin also turned up the heat on other opposition activists and groups, as well as on unbiased media and human legal rights corporations.

Dozens have been slapped with a crippling “foreign agent” label, which indicates added government scrutiny and scorn. Lots of have been compelled to shut down under strain.

With the invasion of Ukraine, the crackdown has been expanded — all but silencing most impartial information internet sites. Fb and Instagram were being banned as extremist and ended up blocked in Russia. Twitter also was blocked, while Russians who use virtual non-public networks, or VPNs, are capable to stay away from accessibility constraints to the social media networks and information retailers banned in Russia.

A new legislation was rubber-stamped by the parliament, criminalizing material that deviates from the official line as “fake news” or which discredits the Russian navy and its steps in Ukraine. Media stores have confronted stress over contacting the action a “war” or an “invasion,” fairly than utilizing the government’s description of it as a “special army procedure.” The very first felony scenarios below the new legislation appeared shortly immediately after it was adopted and, among some others, implicated two well known general public figures who condemned the offensive on social media.

Navalny’s staff has been undeterred by equally the war and the demo of its leader, asserting it was rebooting the foundation as an worldwide corporation.

“Corruption kills,” browse its new web-site. “As Ukrainian metropolitan areas are bombed by Putin, this has never been extra noticeable. Putin and his circle have completed anything to remain in power — and steal, and steal, and steal some additional. Higher on their personal impunity, they unleashed a war.”

“We will obtain all of their mansions in Monaco and their villas in Miami, and when we do, we will make guaranteed Putin’s elite loses every thing it owns,” the statement reported. “We have been battling Putin considering that 2011. We will battle him until eventually we get.”

The Navalny team also promoted a new YouTube channel it has launched, Popular Politics, that considering that March 5 has attracted much more than 920,000 subscribers.

On Monday, it launched a video clip on YouTube alleging that Putin owns a $700 million super yacht, which is in an Italian port. The new expose has gotten around 2.8 million views by Tuesday evening. The New York Periods reported earlier this month that the vessel’s captain denied Putin owned or experienced ever been on the yacht.

The allegations came in stark distinction to Putin’s modern ominous remarks condemning people who oppose the war in Ukraine and juxtaposing elites “who have villas in Miami or the French Riviera, those who simply cannot reside devoid of foie gras, oysters” to “our people” and “Russia.”

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled Russian oil tycoon who expended a ten years in jail in Russia on charges widely viewed as revenge for complicated Putin’s rule, spoke Tuesday of his optimism for Navalny.

“Nine years ended up handed to Navalny. Even so, what does it matter? What matters is how much time Putin has still left. And listed here I think there is some good news for Alexei,” Khodorkovsky tweeted.

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