Branded as “agents”
The legal methods used to pressurize unpleasant media are not new. It is striking, however, that they have been used more extensively since Navalny’s return to Moscow. For example, when interviewing someone on the radio who is not facing the Kremlin, one hears the following sentence: “We must point out that the Russian state sees this person as a foreign agent. The person himself doesn’t see it that way. ”The reason for this is a law that was tightened at the end of 2020 whereby people and organizations who are politically active in Russia and receive financial support from abroad – like many NGOs and the media – act as“ foreign agents ” to be branded. And the media that deal with them have to mention that – otherwise they will be prosecuted themselves.
The regulation, which incidentally also cuts civil rights, affects sociologists such as Lev Gudkow, who heads the renowned Lewada Institute. This regularly publishes figures that the Kremlin apparently don’t like – like this: 50 percent of under-24-year-olds are dissatisfied with Putin and his policies – a figure that has never been so high.
“More and more people are taking to the streets”
“His approval ratings will continue to decline unless there are suddenly positive changes,” says Kirill Shamiev, political scientist at the CEU in Vienna, to the KURIER. “That is unlikely, however.” The protest potential, however, is growing: “We are observing a growing horizontal spread. In the regions in particular, more people take to the streets than last year. Active opposition politics is becoming more normal, ”he says. The methods of repression are unlikely to change that much. Rather, they are likely to reinforce this trend. EP
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