Sergei Davidis knows all too well the dangers of selling human rights in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Davidis works for Memorial, a human rights organization banned by the Russian government and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. That same year, Davidis fled to Lithuania, two days after testifying on behalf of Alexei Navalny, Putin’s main political opponent.
Memorial has documented that there are now 680 political criminals in Russia, but Davidis believes the real number is much higher. Shortly after Russia introduced its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, lawmakers passed a law imposing 15-year criminal sentences on those who criticize the war.
Other human rights rights recorded some 20,000 arrests for protesting against the war.
“Almost every day there are more and more arrests,” Davidis said in Russian. “And beyond the legal aspect, there is more violence and torture than before. “
Russia’s presidential election cycle ended on Sunday, but there is no suspense over who will win. Putin, 71, who has ruled for nearly a quarter of a century, is almost certain to win a fifth term, covering the next six years.
But the elections took place in a climate of increased oppression that opposed any bureaucracy of dissent. Many of Putin’s most sensible rivals have recently been killed: the outspoken mercenary and Putin’s former best friend, Yevgeny Prigozhin, killed in a plane explosion; and Alexey Navalny, who died last month in a criminal camp in the Arctic.
Putin has crushed almost all domestic opposition to his unprovoked war in Ukraine. And yet, many brave Russians continue to criticize him outside the country.
Some live in Vilnius, Lithuania, a city 800 kilometers west of Moscow and the capital of Free Russia. Lithuania, a democracy of about 3 million people, is NATO’s best friend, which has taken in more than 2,500 Russian political exiles since its inception. of the war.
The colors of the Ukrainian flag can be seen in Vilnius. The capital has replaced the name of the street where the Russian embassy is located with the street of the Heroes of Ukraine. ” Putin, The Hague is waiting for you,” is written on the most sensitive part of a building.
Mantas Adomenas, who served as Lithuania’s deputy foreign minister from 2020 until last August, believes Lithuania may harbor more Russian dissidents.
“We will welcome as many people as possible to give them the opportunity to work for freedom and democracy in Russia,” Domenas said.
One of the Russian exiles running from Lithuania for freedom and democracy is Anastasia Shevchenko, a crusader mother who fled Putin’s regime two years ago.
Shevchenko’s daughter, Alina, who has been severely disabled since birth, lived in a Russian government nursing home. Shevchenko took care of her most of the time because the Russian nursing home was understaffed and under-resourced.
“I struggled to get medicine for my daughter, begging at the pharmacy that she needed it. It’s very vital for their health,” Shevchenko said. They said, ‘No, we just don’t have them, because the ministry forgot to ask for them. ‘”this month and you have to wait,'” Shevchenko said. I’ve decided, I’m not going to remain silent. I’m going to stand out and be explicit. “
He spoke through Open Russia, a Russian democratic organization. The organization tolerated 10 years ago. Shevchenko staged protests in his hometown of Rostov-on-Don. In 2019, the Kremlin cracked down.
Shevchenko was arrested and placed under space arrest by a Russian court. You may just not stop or care for your daughter, who developed pneumonia. When a sentence granted Shevchenko a pass to go to the hospital, Alina was unconscious.
She died soon after.
In 2021, Shevchenko received a four-year suspended sentence. But when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, she had to flee Russia. From her hometown in the south, she took her two surviving children and family dog on a 1,800-kilometer adventure from her home in Rostov-on-Don to Vilnius.
After waiting 12 hours at the Belarus-Lithuanian border, Shevchenko and his family returned to freedom. A U. S. -based democratic organization has obtained Lithuanian visas for his family.
Shevchenko is on the loose in Vilnius but is wanted in Russia for violating her probation. Today, he streams on YouTube and works to send medicine, food and letters to political prisoners. She has the voice of other Russians who feel isolated, alone and live in worry that they will never be able to escape, like her daughter.
Right now, he sees a Russia based on fakes: fake democracy, fake news, and fake elections.
“And I’m the opposite,” he said. I want Russia to be open. “
In Russia, independent newsrooms have been forced to close. The government-controlled media reports on the absurd lie that the war in Ukraine is a self-defense against the Nazis.
“One of the consequences of the war has been the total annihilation of independent media, the banning of any opinion that is not under the control of the government, of any choice of state propaganda,” Davidis said.
Tatiana Felgenhauer and Aleksandr Plyuschev were radio announcers at a major Moscow radio station. They were allowed to explain their reports until the day Putin announced his war. Within two weeks, his station was forced to close.
Felgenhauer and Plyuschev are now in Vilnius and stream videos in Russia via YouTube on a daily basis. Putin has silenced Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, but YouTube would possibly be too popular for the Kremlin to block him, at least for now.
“This is the only opportunity to communicate honestly about the war,” Felgenhauer said. “Because propaganda seeks to create this feeling that one is absolutely against war. “
Felgenhauer said she would hate herself if she kept quiet or pretended everything was fine.
And while Russian radio and television channels merely repeat the Kremlin’s speeches, a Lithuanian exercise station has taken advantage of a captive Russian audience on the tracks. The Russian city of Kaliningrad is separated from the rest of the country, like Alaska from the lower 48 states. The Moscow-Kaliningrad exercise will therefore have to pass through Lithuania.
Russian passengers are allowed to get off the train, but at a checkpoint in Vilnius they came across posters depicting atrocities. “Putin is killing civilians in Ukraine. Do you agree with this?” we read. Passengers were allowed off the train, in part because Lithuania is worried about Russian agents.
Putin is known for ordering attacks on his enemies in foreign countries. Adomenas said the protection of Russian dissidents in Lithuania is a primary concern. He said Lithuania is making “considerable efforts” to ensure the protection of dissidents.
Adomenas said he could simply check whether there were attempted attacks on Russian dissidents in Lithuania, but said Russia is “constantly investigating and trying. “
And last week, Russia probably would have managed to get away with it. Leonid Volkov, the best friend of former Russian opposition leader Navalny, attacked with a hammer near his home in Vilnius. He damaged his arm and the assailant fled.
Lithuanian police are investigating, the country’s president has a message for Putin: “No one is afraid of you here. “