The mysterious fates met by Putin critics

The murder of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov on Friday has once again highlighted the grim fates that have befallen several of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics, from radiation poisoning to imprisonment.

A day after tens of thousands of people marched in Moscow to honour Nemtsov’s memory, FRANCE 24 takes a look at some of the more high-profile cases of Putin opponents who have met with cruel – and sometimes bizarre – ends.

Boris Nemtsov: Nemtsov was a leader of the Republican Party of Russia/People's Freedom Party, a liberal opposition group. He rose to prominence in 1997 after he was named deputy premier by Russia’s first post-Soviet president, Boris Yeltsin, and was once seen as a possible Yeltsin heir. But that honour went to Putin in 2000, with Nemtsov serving as a deputy MP in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house, during Putin’s first term.

As Putin tightened his grip, however, Nemtsov became a prominent anti-corruption activist and a vocal critic of Putin’s government. In February 2008, he co-authored a report entitled "What 10 Years of Putin Have Brought" that detailed how many of Putin’s friends and supporters had become billionaires under his rule while the majority of Russians suffered under growing social inequality and a failing pension system. Similar reports followed in subsequent years criticising Putin’s policies.

In a 2011 interview, Nemtsov called critics of Putin’s government “patriots”. “I love Russia and want the best for her, so for me criticising Putin is a very patriotic activity because these people are leading Russia to ruin,” Nemtsov said in an interview republished Saturday on the Meduza news site. “Everybody who supports them, in fact, supports a regime that is destroying the country, and so they are the ones who hate Russia. And those who criticise this regime, those who fight against it, they are the patriots.”

Meduza said that before his death Nemtsov was working on a report that alleges that the Russian “volunteers” who are fighting in eastern Ukraine are acting on direct orders from the Kremlin. In an interview with Russia's Sobesednik news website on February 10, Nemtsov expressed his enmity for Putin and offered a sombre prediction. "I'm afraid Putin will kill me. I believe that he was the one who unleashed the war in the Ukraine. I couldn't dislike him more," he said.

More of Putin opponents who have met with cruel and bizarre ends at France 24

Turkish Workers Join Mass Protests

Confederation of unions, stage two day strike in solidarity with protestors, against police brutality and for a more democratic Turkey.

Russia activist Sergei Udaltsov under house arrest

A court in Russia has placed the prominent opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov under house arrest. Mr Udaltsov is charged with organising "mass disorder" during a protest in Moscow in May 2012. He was arrested in October before being released.

The leader of the Left Front coalition has rejected the accusation, saying it is an attempt to discredit the opposition to President Vladimir Putin. If convicted, Mr Udaltsov faces between four and 10 years in prison.

BBC News

Navalny Finds Bug in His Office

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he found an eavesdropping device behind a wall panel in the office of his Anti-Corruption Fund. Navalny alerted the police upon finding the bug, which is featured in two photos that he posted on Twitter. The photos show a wooden panel pulled away from the wall near the floor, exposing a bundle of wires that lead to a rectangular-shaped piece of black plastic, presumably the listening device.

Officers arrived at Navalny's downtown Moscow office at 26 Nikolo-Yamskaya Ulitsa around 2 p.m. and "conducted checks" of the area, a police representative told Interfax. Navalny, arguably the most prominent figure in the opposition movement, was charged last week with costing the state budget $500,000 by organizing the theft of timber goods from a state company in 2009. He has called the charge "absurd" and likened it to stealing an "entire forest." If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison.

The Moscow Times

Russian blogger Navalny charged with embezzlement

Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny has been charged with embezzlement in a case he describes as "strange and absurd". Federal investigators in Moscow brought charges over a timber deal in the Kirov region in which he was involved as an unofficial adviser three years ago.

The case was previously investigated and dropped by regional prosecutors. Mr Navalny, who was also ordered not to leave the country, suggested the new charges were aimed at discrediting him. Supporters of the anti-corruption lawyer, who led mass protests in Moscow against Russian leader Vladimir Putin this winter, demonstrated outside the offices of the Investigative Committee (SK) in Moscow, where he was charged on Tuesday.

Under Article 160 of the Russian criminal code on "misappropriation or embezzlement", Mr Navalny faces between five and 10 years in prison if convicted.

Reacting to news of the case, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said on Twitter: "We should be concerned with attempts in Russia to silence fierce opposition activist Alexei @navalny."

BBC

Age of Manipulation

Michael Tsarion lectures in Göteborg, Sweden (skip the intro, lecture starts at 6:45)

 Part 2 - Part 3

World Revolution Not Seen on TV- Rallies Around the World

Worldwide rallies cry for peace and gather in solidarity. Western media ignores these peaceful gatherings and if they report, they focus on a few who act out (negatively). They don't show you the thousands of videos taken by real people around the world chanting for peace and freedom.

Bahrain braced for new wave of repression

Bahrain is braced for a fresh bout of violent repression as new arrests and the alleged death of a female student fuel sectarian tensions in the tiny Gulf state. Armoured vehicles and security forces were reported to be gathering in the streets of the capital, Manama, and in surrounding suburbs and villages.

Meanwhile, evidence has emerged that Saudi forces have been involved in violence against the opposition in the mainly Shia villages and suburbs around Manama. In a graphic eyewitness account of the repression given to the Observer, a Bahraini who has been caught up in the violence claimed that officers with Saudi accents, in plainclothes but armed with automatic weapons, had led attacks on members of the Shia opposition on several occasions over the past month.

Reports from the city said that a young woman – beaten up last month by government supporters at Bahrain University – had died. A family member confirmed her death but the circumstances remained unclear. Arrests of lawyers and doctors working for the opposition continued.

The Observer

Bahrain protests will go nowhere while the US supports its government – The Guardian

Rabbis say 'no housing for Arabs'

Hundreds of Israeli rabbis have signed a religious edict forbidding Jews from renting or selling homes to Arabs.

Hundreds of Israeli rabbis have signed a religious edict forbidding Jews from renting or selling homes or land to Arabs and other non-Jews. The public letter instructs Jews to "ostracise" those who disobey the order, which is widely viewed as an attack on the country's Palestinian citizens.
When the decree was announced on Tuesday, it had been signed by 50 rabbis, many of who are employed by the state of Israel as municipal religious leaders. Despite sharp public criticism, another 250 rabbis have added their names to the proclamation.
It is the latest battle in the ongoing religious campaign against non-Jews.
A similar edict was issued in the city of Safed less than two months ago, when over a dozen rabbis banded together to urge Jewish landlords not to rent apartments to Arab college students.

African refugees - a group the state refers to as "infiltrators" - and migrant workers have also been targeted. This summer, 25 Tel Aviv rabbis signed a proclamation that forbids Jews from renting to "infiltrators". Ten real estate agents who work in neighbourhoods that are home to large populations of African refugees answered the call, publicly stating that they would refuse such tenants and would not renew the leases of those who are currently residing there.
And in late November, the municipality of Bnei Brak - an ultra-Orthodox suburb of Tel Aviv - began notifying migrant workers and African refugees that they will be evicted from their homes in the weeks to come.

Al Jazeer