Russian Federation - February 2024

Alexei Navalny, political prisoner and Russia’s highest profile and most effective political opponent of President Vladimir Putin, died on 16 February in a maximum security prison in the Russian Arctic. He was 47 years old and serving essentially a life sentence on numerous fabricated charges. The causes of Navalny’s death remain unclear, with Russian authorities maintaining he died of ‘natural causes’, but he had previously been hospitalized for malnourishment and former inmates at the same prison colony told Holod Media of systemic torture and an absence of basic medical care. Navalny’s family blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin for his death, as did numerous Western countries and international institutions, directly and indirectly.

Sources: Novaya Gazeta, Meduza, Holod Media

Independent Russian media outlets, Meduza and Mediazona, reported that local police around Russia have raided and shut down private parties, LGBTQIA+ bars and clubs, and private BDSM events to enforce the Russian Supreme Court’s ban of the “International LGBT Movement”, an organization that does not exist, on grounds of “extremism.” The reports confirm fears that the Court’s ruling would be used not just to shut down public LGBTQIA+ activism, but as a license to harass and remove LGBTQIA+ people from public life. Incidents have been reported from major cities like St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, as well as in the provincial city of Krasnoyarsk and a town in Karelia.

Sources: Mediazona, Meduza (1), Meduza (2), International IDEA