this was the biggest demonstration by vladimir putin's critics in years tens of thousands of russians took to the streets sparked by the imprisonment of one man an anger about social injustice political repression and staggering corruption at the heart of the kremlin but the protests were violently crushed by the police since then the repression has escalated as putin seeks to silence all dissent eliminating political opponents exploiting the court and purging russia of free speech the games are over and repression is no longer about prevention it's now about elimination alexei navalny has become the undisputed leader of
russia's opposition it was his investigations into government corruption that stirred russia from political apathy his film about putin's billion-dollar secret palace on the black sea had 120 million views and was watched by at least a quarter of the russian population [Music] not only that he had a plan to demonstrate just how much resistance there was to putin's ruling party attack steve in the regional elections in 2019 he promoted a new smart voting project rallying voters behind whichever candidate had the best chance of ousting the united russia representative one goal of his smart voting was destroy
the monopoly once you have that opening that starts a chemical reaction of politics and struggle within the elites and he was right and you know in several regions did happen he rightly identified the weak spot and the kremlin saw it as a major threat at the same time a key pillar of putin's popularity is weakening economic growth since 2014 russia's gdp has dropped by almost 30 percent and a fiscal crisis in 2014 sparked a sharp devaluation of the ruble from which it's yet to recover with vocal opposition on the rise and the economy starting to
slide putin acted prominent kremlin critic is in a coma fighting for his life in a german hospital these pictures show him being stretched into an ambulance he was then airlifted to berlin question is who did this when the attempt to assassinate navalny failed he was thrown in jail prompting the nationwide protests in january the games are over and repression is no longer about prevention it's now about elimination of threat violetta grudeno ran navalny's headquarters in mauramansk a port city in the northwest [Music] the kremlin moved to crush his whole movement violetta's office and 36 others
in navalny's network were forced to close after prosecutors labeled navalny's anti-corruption foundation an extremist organization they applied the law retrospectively meaning that anybody who had ever been associated with that organization should be treated as extremists so effectively they've equated naval in his organization decided to stand as an independent candidate in the local elections [Music] [Music] a cycle of intimidation began her headquarters were vandalized her campaign staff were targeted and intimidated with arrests and trumped up charges of drug trafficking and the authorities even found a way to use the pandemic to disrupt violetta's campaign despite testing
negatives she was forcibly detained in a covert hospital this meant she couldn't submit the documents needed to stand as a candidate the kremen is very versatile in using different tactics to crush not just political opposition but to deal with any sources of discontent or political dissidence they have used covered very imaginatively instead of actually saving russian lives they've used it as a repressive measure violetta was only released from the hospital weeks later after going on an eight-day hunger strike following her release violetta was more determined than ever against all the odds she managed to submit
the papers that formally registered her as a candidate she'd managed to stay in the running longer than the handful of other former navalny coordinators who'd also tried to stand in elections around the country [Music] just one day later she was called to a meeting of the election commission and like navalny's allies before her she was identified as a former member of an extremist organization and banned from standing [Music] in the 2021 state duma elections some opposition deputies mainly running on the communist party ticket did manage to get onto the ballot but the elections were rigged
putin's united russia won retaining a two-thirds majority in parliament big enough to enable putin to change the russian constitution and it wouldn't be the first time in 2020 he pushed through amendments that will allow him to remain in office for at least another 16 years as a 2024 presidential election approaches putin has a personal vested interest in ensuring the opposition cannot compete putin is not in the position to leave office anymore his power his money his life are all tied together in that office in the kremlin uh if you were to lose power the chance
of him retiring peacefully are very very slim the chances of his crown is retaining their ill-gotten wealth is close to zero protecting putin's regime means ramping up spending on police and security forces in 2020 one-tenth of the budget was allocated to domestic security you have this spiral of repression the more it represses the more discontent there is the more discontent there is the more it needs to repress the more money it gets those who are charged face almost certain conviction in 2020 99.64 of those tried were found guilty according to the world justice project russia
has consistently had more government influence in its criminal justice system than almost any other country in the rule of law index russia doesn't have an independent legal system legal system is one of the belts of political power in russia russia doesn't have the rule of law it has the law of the ruler in the aftermath of the january protests more than 11 000 people were arrested and 90 criminal cases were launched some 200 journalists were harassed and detained [Music] allah good nicobar is a student journalist who's awaiting trial [Music] for mr she participated in a
video with three friends which encouraged young people to exercise their legal right to protest [Music] although the students complied with the authority's request to take the film down their homes were raided they've spent months under house arrest awaiting their day in court if convicted the group could face up to three years in prison foreign journalists who don't toe putin's line can now be branded by the government as foreign agents forced to include a disclaimer with anything they publish or broadcast this is a label which people have to wear symbolically it's humiliating it stigmatizes people it
makes them untouchable is journalist malchet [Music] worse is being branded an undesirable organization any cooperation with which is punishable by several years in prison so far dozens of organizations are on the list the majority added in the past two years despite the clampdown many journalists continue to fight the number one of investigative journalists the quality of their work is unlike anything we've seen in the past 20 30 years the fact that nove gazietta one of russia's oldest newspapers and its editor dmitry muratif were awarded the nobel peace prize is partly a recognition of that extraordinary
determination to carry on although tv news remains a stronghold for putin spewing out constant propaganda its popularity is being challenged by the internet social media and youtube sure [Music] in the past five years the share of traditional sources of information tv radio newspapers has shrunk from 75 to 45 the share of online sources of information has grown from 18 to 45 percent the kremlin is desperately trying to regain control over that information space it's trying to force foreign platforms particularly youtube to censor content [Music] [Music] [Music] for opponents like violetta the pressure to leave grows
by the day people are actively encouraged to leave the country out of sight out of mind russia is experiencing its largest political exodus since the 1970s those who stay increasingly live and dread according to a poll by the levada center the share of russia's population who fear repression and state violence is at an all-time high and as for the rest putin will rely on the other force that served him well throughout his two-decade-long reign apathy people have jobs they have kids they might not be in as good a financial state as they were 10 years
ago but they still in a lot better financial and economic state than there were 20 or 30 years ago so there is a lot to lose and there is a lot to risk you can find more of our coverage on russian repression by clicking on the link and viewers in the uk can also watch a full-length documentary on what this repression means for members of the opposition in russia on the itv hub thank you for watching and please don't forget to subscribe [Music]
