Far from the publicity of the ongoing trials against Alexeï Navalny and the organizations opposing the Kremlin, the repression in Moscow has taken on an underground dimension. The Russian authorities, in the capital as elsewhere, had for a long time already had the habit of warning hospital doctors, teachers and employees of social services: any participation in a demonstration would be punishable by sanctions. But, after the April 21 rallies in support of Alexei Navalny, the chase extended to the staff of the Moscow metro.
“I can’t tell you the reason because I don’t know, but we have to terminate your contract. You are made redundant from today. Order from above ”, was thus heard say a subway employee. He secretly recorded the interview a week earlier with one of his superiors, clearly annoyed to get involved in political repression. Because the employee, who preferred to remain anonymous but gave the recording of this conversation to Meduza, one of the Russian news sites with a critical tone, quickly received confirmation of the reasons for his dismissal. No professional misconduct or absenteeism. Prior to the unauthorized demonstration on April 21, he logged into the Free Navalny site and left his personal email. Only a few hours later, he was spotted. Then subsequently dismissed.
Rammstein clip
The case seems far from isolated. AT Open Media, Another Kremlin critical site, Vassili Chelyakov, vice-president of an independent metro union, spoke of a massive wave of layoffs. “There are many, but we do not know them all, only about forty people have contacted me”, he confided. In total, it could be two hundred people. The count is all the more difficult to establish as several of these dismissals were made for various official reasons: absenteeism, illness … Including for employees seen in full health at work. In the majority of cases, they would have registered online on the Alexeï Navalny support site or would have been seen at a demonstration.
While legal proceedings are underway to qualify the opponent’s organizations as“Extremists”, Regarding both its Anti-Corruption Fund and its network of regional HQs, the wave of repression is now targeting several of its representatives across the country.
In Bryansk, near Moscow, Alexander Markine underwent several interrogations during which a high-ranking police officer put him under pressure and threatened to urinate in his mouth. In Arkhangelsk, a city in the Far North, Andrei Borovikov was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for posting on the Internet what the judge considered to be “pornography”, a clip from the German metal group Rammstein.
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