He promoted an app calling for the election of anti-Putin parties and was arrested. Another shocking case of repression in today's Russia
An activist who publicly supported a clever scheme by jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny calling for the election of anti-Putin parties has been detained by police in St Petersburg, Russia. Radio Free Europe reports.
Nikita Ilyin was detained on the street while holding a banner calling for support for the so-called smart voting system, which seeks to snuff out Putin's ruling United Russia party ahead of key elections. He was demonstrating on his own while such "rallies" do not require any special permission from the authorities in Russia. The activist promoted an online system through which Navalny and his associates call for opposition parties to vote against Putin's United Russia party. Ilyin said that police demanded personal information about his friends during questioning, which he refused to provide, citing his right to remain silent guaranteed by the constitution. He was then charged with violating anti-epidemic measures and released.
On the same day, two other activists and members of opposition parties, Mikhail Axel and Kirill Iunchuk, were also detained in St Petersburg while walking through the city centre and accused of speaking loudly in public. Russia will hold elections on 19 September for the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, 39 regional parliaments and nine regional governorships. The run-up to the elections is characterised by an increased crackdown by the Russian regime on opposition activists and independent media as the popularity of the ruling United Russia party plummets as it struggles to cope with the economic consequences of the pandemic and international sanctions. Recently, the independent internet television channel Dozhd was grantedforeign agent status by the authorities , which requires it to label all its content as being published by a "foreign agent".
