Silencing critics and actions in the West
On February 27, 2015, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down within sight of the Kremlin, just days after he had spoken out against Russian intervention in
Ukraine. Nemtsov was only the latest Putin critic to be assassinated or to die under
suspicious circumstances. In January 2016 a British public inquiry officially implicated Putin in the 2006 murder of former
Federal Security Service (FSB; the successor to the
KGB) officer Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko, who had spoken out against Russian government ties to
organized crime both before and after his defection to the United Kingdom, was poisoned with
polonium-210 while drinking tea in a London hotel bar.
Britain ordered the extradition of the two men accused of carrying out the assassination, but both denied involvement and one—Andrey Lugovoy—had since been elected to the
Duma and enjoyed parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Boris Nemtsov
Flowers, condolence messages, and a memorial photograph marking the spot in Moscow's Red Square where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was assassinated on February 27, 2015.
Ivan Sekretarev/AP Images
Aleksey Navalny, an opposition activist who had first achieved prominence as a leader of the 2011 protest movement, was repeatedly imprisoned on what supporters characterized as politically motivated charges. Navalny finished second in the
Moscow mayoral race in 2013, but his Progress Party was shut out of subsequent elections on procedural grounds. In the September 2016 legislative election, voter turnout was just 47.8 percent, the lowest since the
collapse of the Soviet Union. Voter
apathy was attributed to Putin’s steady implementation of so-called “managed
democracy,” a system whereby the basic structures and procedures of democracy were maintained but the outcome of elections was largely predetermined. Putin’s United
Russia party claimed victory, but election observers documented numerous irregularities, including instances of ballot stuffing and repeat voting. Navalny’s party was prohibited from fielding any candidates because of its registration status, and Nemtsov’s PARNAS received less than 1 percent of the vote.
