Vladimir Putin Targets Enemies at Home as His Missiles Strike Ukraine
KONTAN.CO.ID - LONDON. Long before Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the mass detentions of Russian peace protesters, the Kremlin was already stifling dissent with choking bureaucracy. Throughout 2021, the Kremlin tightened the screws on its opponents including supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, using a combination of arrests, internet censorship and blacklists. A widely used weapon in the Kremlin's armoury is the state's register of "foreign agents".
The crackdown accelerated after Russia invaded Ukraine. Now a Reuters data analysis and interviews with dozens of people chart these tactics' success in eroding civil freedoms.
