EXPLAINING THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN RUSSIA |
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Hello and welcome back to the Digest. |
Today we are discussing the tragic case of Andrey Kotov and the jailing of Navalny’s lawyers. Also, some housekeeping — I will be on leave starting next week, so we will miss a couple of issues. Furthermore, if you are reading us from Brussels and would like to get a coffee do let me know while I am still here. |
In solidarity, Dan Storyev |
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Trigger warning:
This is a newsletter about Russian repressions. Sometimes it will be hard to read. |
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At OVD-Info we work with over 300 affiliate lawyers all over Russia to hinder the Kremlin’s relentless assault on dissidents. We are often asked how lawyers can even work safely in Russia in the first place — wouldn’t a government dead set on prosecuting people for as much as holding up a blank piece of paper be brutal to human rights lawyers?
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Russia, in fact, has a long tradition of human rights lawyers working on the ground going back to the late Soviet era. They certainly do not work unimpeded and they are often threatened at work. |
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Alexander Nemov, Zarema Musaeva’s lawyer, after he was attacked in Chechnya, July 2023 / Photo: Anna Artemyeva, Novaya Gazeta |
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However, the Kremlin had been reluctantly allowing them to continue operating. Russia is not yet a full-on fascist dictatorship, where defending dissidents in courts is impossible. No, the lawyers are allowed to work — it is just that the judges and the security services will not listen to them or uphold the law in the overwhelming majority of political cases.
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Thus, human rights lawyers existed as a peculiar institution separate from the Kremlin-run justice system — but not anymore. Last week, three of Alexei Navalny’s lawyers were sentenced for “participating in an extremist community”. Igor Sergunin was the only one of the three to admit to the charge. He was given a sentence of three-and-a-half years. Alexei Liptser got five years and Vadim Kobzev was given five-and-a-half years.
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Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev at a sentencing hearing in the Petushinsky District Court of Vladimir Oblast, 17 January 2025 / Photo: SOTAvision
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Detained in October 2023, the lawyers were, allegedly, instrumental in Navalny’s last spark of political activity that kept him a household name even while in prison. They were accused of helping Navalny communicate with the outside world. In order to build their case the authorities had to flout attorney-client privilege, taping private conversations between the lawyers and Navalny — which is illegal under Russian law.
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The trio is not the only example of lawyers being persecuted by the Kremlin — the authorities have been jailing rights lawyers, blocking them from visiting their clients or otherwise hounding them through various forms of lawfare. This is however a rubicon moment, signaling that the Kremlin wants to destroy nearly all civic infrastructure within the country and anyone associated with it. |
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The report summarizes key repression trends of last year.
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For me, one of the key repressive touchstones of wartime Russia is the LGBT extremism ruling. In 2023 Russia’s Supreme Court agreed with the Justice Ministry, declaring the non-existent “international LGBT movement” an extremist organisation.
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The ruling was so momentous because it is not directly connected to the war, unlike the other hastily constructed legislative tools targeting anti-war sentiment and activity. Instead, this shows how the Kremlin wants to carry out repression for the sake of repression, in order to cement its conservative worldview.
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In January 2024, a court in Nizhny Novgorod jailed 24-year-old Anastasia Ershova for five days. She was found guilty of ‘displaying extremist symbols’ for wearing rainbow-colored frog earrings |
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We have already covered cases of anti-queer repression. They are tragic, and some are also downright absurd — like the case of a fine for rainbow frog earrings, or a “gay propaganda” charge for using pink lighting as decoration in a bar.
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The case I want to spotlight here is tragic in its entirety. In the last months of 2024 the case of Andrey Kotov unfolded. Kotov is remembered by his friends as a kind and harmless inventor, who poured whatever money he made into the pet projects that filled his apartment. |
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An aquarium designer prior to the war, he couldn’t raise enough money to pursue his business of choice and decided to create a travel agency organising tours to Egypt and the Volga River. The company was called “Men Travel”.
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| Andrey Kotov promoting “Men Travel” in one of his social media posts |
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Everything changed in October. “About 15 people came to me at night, they beat me, hit me in the face, on the legs, left bruises. I did not offer any resistance, I was extremely surprised by this procedure,” is how Kotov described the ordeal.
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“They wanted to make me say whatever they wanted,” Kotov said about the masked men beating him with fists, batons and a stun gun. They wanted him to say that “Men Travel” organized “LGBT tours”, thus breaking the laws on extremism and gay propaganda.
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Andrey Kotov with his lawyer in court, 3 December 2024 / Photo: SOTA |
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Kotov refused to admit guilt. He was found dead in his pre-trial detention cell on December 29. The police claim it was a suicide.
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The Digest is created by OVD-Info, written by Dan Storyev, edited by Dr Lauren McCarthy |
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