The Real Russia. Today.

A new ultimatum for Navalny, plus Russia’s ever-growing ‘foreign agent’ specter

Monday, December 28, 2020

• The Russian authorities want Navalny back in Moscow for a parole hearing first thing tomorrow morning
• What you need to know about Russia’s updated ‘foreign agent’ laws
• New podcast episode: Revisiting the poisoning of Vladimir Kara-Murza
• Opinion and analysis: Two political scientists explain how Russia’s abandonment of mayoral elections hasn’t delivered on promises of more effective management
• News briefs: the Sputnik V saga and Lyubov Sobol’s legal problems

Feature stories

⚖️ Evading oversight

Despite the fact that he was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent in Russia, opposition figure Alexey Navalny has been adamant about his plans to return home. But now the Russian authorities have called him back to Moscow earlier than expected. On Monday, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service threatened to file a complaint against Navalny in court for violating the terms of his probation. Citing an article published by the doctors who treated him in Germany, the agency maintains that Navalny long ago recovered from his “illness” and demands that he appear at a parole hearing in Moscow on Tuesday morning. While Navalny’s lawyer warns that the opposition figure could end up in jail if his previous sentence is overturned, Navalny and his associates are drawing attention to the fact that this is the first time a branch of the Russian government has effectively acknowledged that he was poisoned.

🕵️ Secret agent men

On December 25, Russian senators approved a law that allows the federal government to designate ordinary citizens and informal organizations (ones not registered as legal entities) as “foreign agents” if they are “involved in political activity” in Russia and receive assistance from abroad. The new law refers to more than just financial assistance and offers a broad interpretation of what constitutes political activity. What’s more, potential foreign agents are responsible for registering their status themselves and, under yet another law, failure to do so risks not only a fine but also as many as five years in prison. The legislation takes effect as soon as President Putin signs it, which is expected imminently. Meduza explains why this new law threatens almost everyone with the dreaded “foreign agent” label.

“The Naked Pravda”: Troubles with Kremlin poisoners and FBI investigators 🎧

There have been major breakthroughs in the investigative reporting surrounding the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, whom the Federal Security Service allegedly tried to assassinate in August 2020. As Meduza has reported previously, Navalny’s case is part of a long, grim trend in Russia. In recent weeks, thanks to investigative work by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalists Mike Eckel and Carl Schreck, there is also new information available involving another apparent poisoning victim in Russia, the oppositionist Vladimir Kara-Murza.

In December 2015, six months after Kara-Murza’s first hospitalization, he filed a police report claiming that someone had tried to kill him using poison. Two years later, after he was hospitalized a second time with another sudden and mysterious illness, the FBI in the United States, where Kara-Murza lives, got involved, but the bloodwork results based on samples provided by Kara-Murza’s family were classified. Kara-Murza is still trying to obtain these records through litigation in America.

Opinion and analysis

↕️ What it cost to build the Power Vertical

Kirill Kazantsev and Alexandra Rumyantseva, political scientists at the Center for Advanced Governance — *Meduza*

Thanks to Russia’s recent constitutional amendments, local self-government has effectively lost its independence. State officials at all levels now belong to the “unified system of public authority,” accountable to the president. Dramatic as these changes seem on paper, the reforms, in fact, formally recognize what has long been true in reality: appointed “city managers” have largely replaced the country’s elected mayors. As is often the case with Russia’s legislative innovations, lawmakers have justified the abolition of these popularly elected positions by citing “international practices” — particularly in the United States, which is where they grabbed the term “city manager.” In Russia and around the world, the main purpose of these reforms has been to reduce ineffective and often politically-driven municipal spending. In an article specially for Meduza, Center for Advanced Governance political scientists Kirill Kazantsev and Alexandra Rumyantseva examine whether Russia’s retreat from popularly elected mayors has ushered in an era of more effective city management.

Other news in brief

• 💉 Get scared and get vaccinated. Just as surveys show that more than half of Russians say they don’t want Sputnik V, public health officials are admitting to higher pandemic death tolls. With the frightening new numbers and Putin likely poised for a televised inoculation, will the nation come any closer to accepting the shots? Not yet.
• 👮 The telephone “prank” fallout. Navalny’s right-hand woman, Lyubov Sobol, is out of jail but still on the hook for criminal trespassing after trying to meet face-to-face with Konstantin Kudryavtsev, one of the supposed FSB agents who allegedly tried to kill Navalny.

🕯️ Tomorrow in history: Seven years ago tomorrow, on December 29, 2013, a suicide bomber killed 18 people and injured at least 44 in an attack on a train station in Volgograd. A day later, a second terrorist bombed a trolleybus, killing 16 people and injuring 41. The Jihadist group “Vilayat Dagestan” claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Yours, Meduza