The Daily - Inside Russia’s Crackdown on Dissent: An Update

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.Days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin made it a crime to oppose the war in public. Since then, it has waged a relentless campaign of repression, putting Russian citizens in jail for offenses as small as holding a poster or sharing a news article on social media.Valerie Hopkins, an international correspondent for The Times, tells the story of Olesya Krivtsova, a 19-year-old student who faces up to 10 years in prison after posting on social media, and explains why the Russian government is so determined to silence those like her.Guest: Valerie Hopkins, an international correspondent for The New York Times, covering Russia and the war in Ukraine.Background reading: Listen to the original version of the episode here.Oleysa’s story has underlined the perils of using social media to criticize the war in Ukraine.The authorities are determining who will take custody of a 13-year-old girl whose single father has been sentenced for “discrediting” the Russian Army.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Hey, it's Sabrina. This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and hearing what's happened since they first ran. Today, we revisit our conversation with Valerie Hopkins about one woman in Russia who spoke out against the war in Ukraine. It's Wednesday, December 27th. Valerie, tell me about this reporting you've been doing about dissent in Russia. Who are these Russians who are voicing their opposition to the war despite these really dire repercussions?

You know, they're actually all really different people. You might think there's like a profile, but there are sort of middle-aged guys in the provinces, young, hip, highly educated college students. There's a lot. But one of the cases that really stuck out to me was a teenager named Alesia Krivtsova. She lives in a town outside of Archangelsk, very close to the Arctic Circle. And for our first interview, actually, I connected over a call on the messaging app Telegram. So Olesya is 19. She's a student at University in Arkhangelsk, studying advertising and public relations. She's a vegan and a feminist. She didn't really consider herself to be an activist.

But when the war in Ukraine started, like many young Russians, she talked to her family and friends about it, and most of them agreed with her that the war was wrong. And last May, she actually decided to do something publicly for the first time. May 9th, it's when Russia celebrates Victory Day, the end of World War II. But this year, with a war going on in Ukraine, this year the holiday hit her differently. It made her so angry that Russians are celebrating peace while bombing people in Ukraine. So Alesia made some leaflets with her friends.

And the message was, World War II veterans also live in Ukraine. And they are dying from shelling now. This war must end. She actually goes around the city putting them up in different houses and residential complexes. And then they all went home. But the next day, the authorities came to her apartment. They'd seen the license plate of the car that she and her friend were using

as they drove around the city distributing these things. Was it the police? No, they were people from what's called the Center-E, the Russian Center for Combating Extremism. What Alesia refers to as the political police. And she said they forced her to apologize personally to the armed forces of Russia on camera. So because this was her first offense, something that's known as administrativka in Russian, she was fined, but it will stay on her record.

And basically that comes with a warning of, if you do anything like this again, you will have a criminal trial, and the penalties are much higher and include prison time. And so naturally, she limits herself to speaking out on Instagram occasionally and feels pretty safe doing that because her account's private. But as it turns out, even that was a step too far. Fast forward a few months to December 26. She stayed up all night preparing for finals.

She finally goes to sleep around 7 a.m. And her mom leaves for work. And all of a sudden she hears a voice in her apartment. She thinks maybe it's her grandma checking on her. But it's not. It's actually the Russian authorities. A swarm of men yelling at Alessia to get down on the floor.

And while she's face down, she looks up and sees a man holding a sledgehammer above her head. And she realized that they were just trying to intimidate her. They take her down to the station eventually, and that's when they tell her that she's being investigated, not only for discrediting the Russian armed forces, but also for justifying terrorism. Whoa, so what is that about? There was actually a group of Olesya's classmates who had been paying very close attention to what she was posting on Instagram and actually had reported her to the authorities for some of her anti-war posts.

Basically, a group of her friends had snitched on her. Yep. And, you know, there was one post in particular that they brought to the attention of the authorities. It was after the Ukrainians bombed a bridge connecting Russia with Crimea. And what she said was she understood why Ukrainians were rejoicing about it. It's really this post that becomes the center of the allegations against Alicia. And four of her classmates are the key witnesses in the prosecution's case against her,

in which she faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years. And there was this group chat in which some of the students were discussing whether or not they would denounce Alicia. And I actually saw some of the screenshots. And one of the students at one point during this debate says, denunciation is the duty of a patriot. Wow.

And I tried to call him. Hello? Hello? My name is Valeria. And he answered the phone, but as soon as I identified myself as a journalist, he hung up. But then I went to Alesya's university.

I wanted to see what other students thought about this case. So I went to the university with a photographer colleague, and we split up. university with a photographer colleague and we split up. And I started introducing myself to some students. Most people just kept saying they had no idea what I was talking about and that showed me the extent of the chilling effect that this had on the student body. And then all of a sudden I got a message from my colleague who wrote to me that she saw someone following us, probably from the FSB, the Russian Intelligence and Security Agency. But someone following you?

Yeah. I mean, this happens when you travel in the Russian regions, but it's always a bit nerve-wracking because I really want to make sure that no one I talk to gets harmed because they talk to me. But eventually, I was able to talk to the head of Olesya's department at the university. He's 42 years old, and he's in favor of the government and in favor of the war.

He actually wrote a negative character reference for the prosecution, even though Olesya said she's never met him. He said that he thought there should be limits to the kind of debate students could have. And he also said that the informers, you know, the students that turned her in, He also said that the informers, you know, the students that turned her in, he referred to them as part of a healthy immune response.

He basically compared Alessia's public distaste for the war to a bacteria or an infection. And he said these students were part of the organism of a healthy immune system of a society that were actually, you know, making sure that the society didn't get more sick. To prevent contagion. Exactly. Exactly. to prevent contagion. Exactly. He said the system worked exactly as it was supposed to.

We'll be right back. So Valerie, where did Alicia's case stand when you interviewed her back in February? When I first talked to her, she was under house arrest awaiting trial. She had to wear an ankle bracelet that tracked her location. And she wasn't allowed to use any technology. So she felt super alone. Actually, her mom was kind of her only lifeline to the world. And she said that in general, she was really scared and that every night before she would go to bed, she and her mom would hug and say goodbye because they kind of never knew what would happen the next day.

She had to go to court hearings every month, and she knew that they could also just actually put her in jail immediately. And what are those court hearings like? Well, a few days after I talked to her the first time, I actually traveled to our Hong Kong to attend one of those hearings because I thought it would be probably my only chance

to really talk with Alesia in person and see her. And we were waiting for the proceedings to start when something kind of unexpected happened. A Russian TV crew approached me and started asking me repeatedly, rapid fire, like, what was I doing there? Why was I interested in the case? What do you think about the war in Ukraine? Do you support Western weapons being used against Russian soldiers? I don't actually think they were there to cover Alesia's trial because they didn't ask her any questions when she spoke to the press ahead of the trial.

And they also left almost as soon as it started. Oh, wow. So it was kind of hard to tell what they were up to exactly, but the hearing itself was relatively uneventful. And in the end, the judge decided to leave Alesia under house arrest. But then later that night, I realized why the television crew was interviewing me. The exchange I had with the Russian TV reporters was part of a segment on the local news about foreign interest in Alesia's case. Why is this your business?

Us? Yes, this is my job. I'm just here like you. Thank you. That's it. So you were on television? Yes. So at this point, your reporting on Alesia is really starting to come under the same kind of scrutiny as the dissent itself. So what's next for Alesia? When does she go to trial?

Well, I stayed in touch quite frequently with her mom because Alesia is not allowed to use technology. And then all of a sudden, one day last month, her mother called to tell me that she had some pretty major news. Alesia had managed to escape Russia and made it to Vilnius, Lithuania. Wow. She was ecstatic. And so when I was finally able to speak to Alesia directly a few days later

from Lithuania, she told me a little bit about what happened. She said that there's this secret network of activists who help to spirit people out. It's really underground. She had to, like, completely disguise herself into a different person. She was wearing a man's, like, big, ugly coat.

wearing a man's, like, big, ugly coat. She realized that nothing she could say would change anything. And she decided to leave because she became desperate. But she also said that the real heroes are the people who stayed behind, no matter the consequences. So, Alesya's story is the story of someone who resisted, but who ultimately fled, right? But what about the people Alisa's calling the real heroes, the people who don't escape and go to prison? What about them? The government has detained more than 20,000 Russians since the start of the war.

And I've reported on a few of those cases. I remember one sentencing that I went to about a month ago that really stuck with me of a man named Dima or Dmitry Ivanov. He's also a student. He's 23. And his crime was actually reposting information from Western media about the killings in the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Mariupol. It's customary in a Russian courtroom for the accused to say a final word, a statement, you know, before the sentencing. He said, we can't stop the war right now, but that doesn't mean that we're powerless. I want each of you to think about what they can do personally. Russia will be free because we will make it that way.

And right after the speech, the judge delivered the sentence. Eight and a half years in prison. She asked him, do you understand the sentence? He said he did. And then the guards led him away. So Valerie, the Kremlin knows that that kind of thing is contagious. Dima is essentially saying here, you don't need to go to jail, but you do need to act. Do something small.

Like the rector at Alesis University said, if it's, you know, it's existential for them to maintain the image that they do have broad support, that the war has broad support, and they are doing more and more to try to force everyone to get in line, or at least not do anything that would pierce that image. Valerie, thank you. Thank you, Sabrina. After the break, Valerie shares an update on Alicia. In late November, Valery checked back in with Olesya. The last time that I actually saw Olesya's face, it was in February in a courtroom defending herself against continued house arrest. And now

so many months later, the moment her face blinked onto the screen, it was amazing to see the lightness that she now feels. Catch me up on what your life is like now. Okay. Now she's actually quite settled. Not only is she studying at a university and speaking English quite well. She's moved to Kirkenes, Norway, which is just across from the Russian border. I think it's something like 15 kilometers away. She's also gotten a job. I'm a journalist in Norwegian media.

Writing about what's going on in Russia with a particular focus on political prisoners. And every day when I see new political cases, I'm very upset. You get really upset? Upset, upset, yes. When I asked her how the experience changed her, she said... I became an adult. I made a lot of adult decisions. I grew up. I became an adult.

And I think she has shown incredible maturity in using her freedom to report on people who were not as lucky as she was to be able to leave and to try to keep the spotlight on them. I often go to the border and just walk near the border. It's very strange for me, but very interesting, you know, because usually I feel only hate, hate to Russia. And I think she doesn't miss Russia as a place. She doesn't miss her city or her house,

but she does miss her family and her relatives. Of course I miss. I miss my mother, my sister, my family, my school maybe, and my time in Russia, but not Russia like state. But my mother come in Norway after eight days. Oh. Yes. So I hope that everything will be okay. Yeah. It was so nice to see you and talk to you.

And I'm looking forward to meeting up soon. And I hope that you have a great new year. Thank you, Valeria. Great year for you too. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Stay in touch. Bye.

Bye. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Stay in touch. Bye. Bye. That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.