>Moscow is coming under increasing pressure over Kyiv’s relentless drone strikes. Ukraine’s president is due to meet in Washington with President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
>The Kremlin has initiated a new crackdown on anti-war voices ahead of Russia’s parliamentary elections in September, barring candidates from running if they show any sign of opposing the bloody, expensive and increasingly unpopular military operation in Ukraine.
While repression of political opposition forces is nothing new in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the new clampdown is jarring because for a moment this spring, it seemed like a rare window had opened for dissent, as the authorities appeared to create a pressure-release valve for growing dissatisfaction over the war.
>But with the government coming under increasing pressure over Ukraine’s relentless drone strikes and the growing toll on the economy, including an acute fuel crisis, hard-liners in the Kremlin and the security services are gaining the upper hand and have pushed successfully for more repressive measures.
In recent weeks, the liberal-leaning Yabloko Party, which is attempting to campaign under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom” — a pointed counter to Putin’s unyielding push for conquest — has come under increasing pressure across the country.
>Meanwhile, Russia’s most prominent anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin, who sought to run as an independent, has been barred from the campaign.
Authorities in St. Petersburg last week refused to register Yabloko for the local parliamentary elections, and more than a dozen of its candidates have been barred from federal and regional elections over accusations they displayed alleged “extremist symbols” such as posting photos online of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
>The Russian authorities “are not going to give any platform to people with anti-war views in the election,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, an independent political analyst in Moscow. “There is now not one noticeable voice against the war.”
>Recent challenges to Yabloko’s registration in several regions over claims of incorrect paperwork could lead to Yabloko being barred overall from the federal election, analysts say — a move that could strengthen United Russia, the ruling party that controls the parliament and has long backed Putin.
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>Moscow is coming under increasing pressure over Kyiv’s relentless drone strikes. Ukraine’s president is due to meet in Washington with President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
>The Kremlin has initiated a new crackdown on anti-war voices ahead of Russia’s parliamentary elections in September, barring candidates from running if they show any sign of opposing the bloody, expensive and increasingly unpopular military operation in Ukraine.
While repression of political opposition forces is nothing new in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the new clampdown is jarring because for a moment this spring, it seemed like a rare window had opened for dissent, as the authorities appeared to create a pressure-release valve for growing dissatisfaction over the war.
>But with the government coming under increasing pressure over Ukraine’s relentless drone strikes and the growing toll on the economy, including an acute fuel crisis, hard-liners in the Kremlin and the security services are gaining the upper hand and have pushed successfully for more repressive measures.
In recent weeks, the liberal-leaning Yabloko Party, which is attempting to campaign under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom” — a pointed counter to Putin’s unyielding push for conquest — has come under increasing pressure across the country.
>Meanwhile, Russia’s most prominent anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin, who sought to run as an independent, has been barred from the campaign.
Authorities in St. Petersburg last week refused to register Yabloko for the local parliamentary elections, and more than a dozen of its candidates have been barred from federal and regional elections over accusations they displayed alleged “extremist symbols” such as posting photos online of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
>The Russian authorities “are not going to give any platform to people with anti-war views in the election,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, an independent political analyst in Moscow. “There is now not one noticeable voice against the war.”
>Recent challenges to Yabloko’s registration in several regions over claims of incorrect paperwork could lead to Yabloko being barred overall from the federal election, analysts say — a move that could strengthen United Russia, the ruling party that controls the parliament and has long backed Putin.