The Russia Conundrum

Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, the FBK, was singled out for denunciation. ‘Under the guise of liberal slogans,’ declared the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office, ‘[it] is engaged in creating conditions for destabilising the social and the socio-political situation … with the intent to overthrow the foundations of the constitutional order.’ Driven by the fear of a ‘colour revolution’ like the ones that so terrified Putin when they occurred in Georgia and Ukraine, the Kremlin declared Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation an ‘extremist group’, a designation previously reserved for terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda. Anyone deemed to have been associated with FBK or its leaders in the 12 months leading up to the designation was subject to retrospective prosecution and a ban on standing for public office. ‘Association’ was defined as anything from attending a then-legal demonstration, to posting a supportive message online or merely ‘liking’ a message by someone else. Sharing FBK’s investigative reports was now considered ‘disseminating extremist material’.

The catch-all nature of the legislation gave the Kremlin an alarmingly free rein to extend its crackdown. Two of my own media organisations, MBK Media and Open Media, were promptly targeted. These were independent news sources, providing uncensored information to a Russian public that is otherwise deprived of non-state-sponsored reporting. When their online presence was again blocked in August 2021, there was no official announcement and no explanation, other than an indication that it was part of a wider move to target websites which ‘incite unrest, extremist activities, or participation in unauthorised rallies’. Vitaly Borodin, whose Kremlin-backed organisation’s denunciations provided the pretext for the crackdown, declared publicly that investigative journalists are worse than terrorists. Under such circumstances, Russia under Putin has become a killing field. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an international NGO that tracks attacks on the press across the globe, at least 58 reporters have been murdered in connection with their work in Russia since 1992. Against a background of such violence, I decided it was no longer possible to continue operating; to do so would put the editorial staff of MBK Media and Open Media at too great a risk. In my statement at the time, I warned that ‘these political repressions, including the silencing of journalists and human-rights defenders, demonstrate the regression of Putin’s regime and of Putin personally towards the archaic Soviet model, with the added factor of his own personal greed and that of his ruling circle.’

A very different ‘Hero of Our Time’ is revealed

Even before the Navalny ruling, the Russian Prosecutor’s Office had declared my political movement Open Russia and my philanthropic organisations – the Future of Russia Foundation, the Khodorkovsky Foundation, the Oxford Russia Fund and European Choice – to be ‘undesirable organisations’. The Khodorkovsky Foundation has for over 20 years helped thousands of children from disadvantaged families to get a good education in Russia and in top European universities. The Oxford Russia Fund, which provides scholarships for Russian students to study at Oxford University, has helped hundreds of young Russian men and women by covering their fees, accommodation and travel costs. Closing down these schemes only increased Russia’s isolation, depriving her citizens of engagement and dialogue with Europe. They have forced many hopeful and active young people to leave their own country. Unfortunately, the trend of intimidation and political repression is growing ever greater.

After the initial onslaught on Navalny, myself and my associates, an increasing number of independent media platforms has been targeted. Meduza and the Dossier Center had their websites blocked. The investigative media outlet, Proekt, was banned in retaliation for its embarrassing revelations about Putin and other officials. Proekt had carried exposés of Putin’s brutal placeman in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the interior minister, Vladimir Kolokoltsev; it had reported on the Kremlin’s bungled response to the COVID crisis and had run a carefully sourced story in 2020 revealing that Putin has an unacknowledged daughter by a secret mistress. Eight Proekt journalists, including its editor, Roman Badanin, were added to a register of ‘foreign agents’, along with the staff of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The ruling made it illegal for other news organisations to link to or quote from their reports, on pain of criminal charges.