Steve Gutterman's Week In Russia

I'm Steve Gutterman, the editor of RFE/RL's Russia/Ukraine/Belarus Desk.

Welcome to The Week In Russia, in which I dissect the key developments in Russian politics and society over the previous week and look at what's ahead. To receive The Week In Russia newsletter in your inbox, click here.

The choreographed backlash over a risqué holiday party speaks volumes about Russia as the New Year approaches. So does the treatment of imprisoned Kremlin opponent Aleksei Navalny, who has been moved to a harsh prison in the country's frigid Far North.

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

Anatomy Of A Scandal

For decades, star-studded galas have been a gaudy staple of the winter holiday season on Russian television, bringing tens of millions of viewers an annual message: sit back, relax, stay out of politics -- and forget about the high price of the eggs you boiled for the obligatory New Year's potato salad.

This year, a celebrity-laden gathering that was ostensibly private has stolen the show: The state is stoking a backlash over an "Almost Naked" party at a Moscow nightclub earlier this month, using the louche celebration to drive home the socially conservative notions that it is increasingly casting as a national ideology amid a severe break with the West over Russia's war on Ukraine.

Socially conservative is an understatement in a country where the Supreme Court this month classified what the government called the "international LGBT social movement" as extremist. Kremlin critics say President Vladimir Putin's sharpening focus on so-called "traditional values" is disingenuous, a way to draw Russians' attention away from troubles such as inflation and to score points among select audiences abroad by portraying Russia as the world's valiant protector against what he paints as the decadent, ultra-liberal West.

Despite its risqué theme and the celebrity of some of the big-name guests, the party on December 20-21 might have flown under the radar for the vast majority of Russians if it had come off without incident. But even as they profess disinterest, state authorities have drawn attention to it, not least by arresting a rapper who wore nothing but a single sock -- and not on his foot. On December 27, a court sentenced him to 15 days in jail for "hooliganism" and ruled that the party had violated legislation banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" -- Russia's infamous "gay propaganda" law, which has been made increasingly harsh by amendments since Putin first signed it in 2013.

Cancel Culture

Nobody else has been prosecuted at this point, but the club has been closed temporarily and its premises sealed by the consumer protection agency, famous attendees have lost sponsors and contracts, including for the New Year's Eve shows that the "Almost Naked" party has overshadowed in advance, and several -- including the organizer, Anastasia Ivleyeva -- have recorded public apologies that are being likened to the forced displays of repentance that were a fixture of the Stalin era, which are now echoed by those who cross Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya.

With Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaching the two-year mark in February, with no sign of a let-up in Moscow's onslaught, the scandal raised over the party was a sign of the times.

According to the Russian-language media outlet The Bell, it was also a signal to Russians that whether they are celebrities or ordinary citizens, they must "listen to the Party of War." And with Putin asserting that Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is actually an existential struggle against the West that has many elements, including a culture war, that means anything that the authorities pick out as a reflection of disloyalty is subject to pressure and punishment from the state.

In some ways, that's nothing new. A clampdown on dissent that can be traced back at least as far as opposition leader Aleksei Navalny's arrest upon his return to Russia in January 2021, and arguably to a wave of protests that began in 2011, has intensified since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion.

While the spiral of oppression has become the status quo, with any public criticism of the war risking persecution, prosecution, or both, some of the near-daily developments seem to stand out.

Poets Imprisoned

On December 28, two poets, Artyom Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba, were sentenced to seven and 5 1/2 years in prison, respectively, for condemning the invasion in verses they read out in September 2022 on a Moscow square. They were convicted of "inciting hatred and calling for anti-state activities."

Like the "Almost Naked" party, meanwhile, Navalny was also seemingly used by the state to send a message to Russians and the West.

After almost 20 days during which they were unable to contact him or determine where he was, lawyers for Navalny finally found him at an isolated prison above the Arctic Circle that former inmates have described as a harsh place where everyday treatment of the convicts was tantamount to torture.

Navalny disappeared while he was being moved, via a circuitous route, from the prison closer to Moscow where he had been held. This is common practice in Russia, dating back to the Soviet era and even earlier -- prison authorities hold inmates incommunicado while transporting them within the penitentiary system.

'Then The Night Again'

All the while, Putin's spokesman asserted that the Kremlin had no idea of his whereabouts and no interest in knowing them.

Many observers dismissed that claim, just as they doubted reports that the scandal over the nearly nude party was the result of a popular backlash, spawned when soldiers who had been decorated by Putin after returning from the war in Ukraine complained about the event, rather than what The Bell called a top-down "cancel campaign" approved by Putin's administration -- or at the very least used by Putin for his own ends.

Navalny, for his part, made light of his predicament. Finally located by one of his lawyers in a prison cell in the frigid Far North on December 25, Christmas Day in much of the West, he joked that he was exhausted from the journey "but still in a good mood, as befits a Santa Claus."

In the same post to his account on X, formerly Twitter, Navalny mentioned one way that he differed from Santa Claus. And in doing so, as 2024 approaches, he described the lightless atmosphere that Kremlin critics say is likely to prevail for the foreseeable future in Russia as Putin, in power as president or prime minister since 1999, heads for a new six-year term in a March vote.

"I don't say 'Ho-ho-ho,'" Navalny wrote, "but I do say 'Oh-oh-oh' when I look out of the window, where I can see a night, then the evening, and then the night again."

That's it from me this week.

If you want to know more, catch up on my podcast The Week Ahead In Russia, out every Monday, here on our site, or wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts).

Yours,

Steve Gutterman

I'm Steve Gutterman, the editor of RFE/RL's Russia/Ukraine/Belarus Desk.

Welcome to The Week In Russia, in which I dissect the key developments in Russian politics and society over the previous week and look at what's ahead. To receive The Week In Russia newsletter in your inbox, click here.

As a confident President Vladimir Putin spoke at a four-hour event that marked a step toward a new six-year Kremlin term, there was no mention of his most prominent foe, imprisoned Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, whose whereabouts have been unknown for 10 days.

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

No Question

For years, Putin has seemed to take great care to avoid mentioning Navalny by name.

At a closely watched, carefully choreographed event billed as a combined press conference and question-and-answer session with the Russian people, Putin had no trouble adhering to that policy, tradition, superstition, or whatever it is. Nobody asked about Navalny or any other prominent Kremlin opponent, for that matter, and Putin barely brought up politics at all, even though an election that's all but certain to hand him a fifth presidential term is just three months away.

The fact that Putin's most prominent foe was not mentioned in a performance that lasted over four hours may be part of a deliberate effort to keep him silent as the campaign, or what passes for a campaign, gets under way.

Navalny, who has been behind bars since he returned to Russia almost three years ago following treatment for a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning he blames on Putin and the Federal Security Service, has not been heard from by his relatives, lawyers, or allies in 10 days.

'Flagrant Violation'

The Russian penitentiary authority indicated on December 15 that Navalny is in the process of being transferred to a different prison, but supporters do not know where he is -- and they're worried.

"What is happening with Alexei is, in fact, an enforced disappearance and a flagrant violation of his fundamental rights," wrote Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations and chairwoman of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, which is banned in Russia. "Answers must be given."

The absence of any mention of Navalny at the December 14 event was also an indication of how severe Russia's clampdown on dissent has become, particularly since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and how his confrontation with Kyiv and the West has changed the landscape.

In past years, at Putin's almost-annual press conference, journalists from Russia and the West frequently asked questions about the state's actions against the opposition. This time, only two reporters from the European Union or the United States were called on, and neither asked about domestic critics of the Kremlin.

Journalists Held

A New York Times correspondent, in fact, asked about a colleague who under different circumstances might have been asking Putin a question. But Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been in a Moscow jail since March, when he was arrested by the Federal Security Service and accused of espionage, a charge that he, the Journal, and the United States vehemently deny.

Along with Alsu Kurmasheva of RFE/RL, Gershkovich is one of two American journalists being held in Russia. Minutes before Putin started speaking, a Moscow court rejected his appeal against a ruling that extended his term in pretrial detention until January 30.

The closest Putin and his interlocutors came to a discussion of the pervasive clampdown on dissent in Russia was when a reporter asked him about a case in which prosecutors had asked a court to sentence a journalist accused of extortion to 14 years in prison and suggested that calling for such a long term for a nonviolent crime might be considered a "witch hunt."

Putin dismissed the notion that it was a "witch hunt" and added, "Who is hunting for her? What is she, some kind of major opposition figure?"

The Truth Will Out

Kremlin critics took that as a substantial slip-up by Putin, an admission of something that he invariably denies despite what is now decades of evidence: that his government targets political opponents for prosecution.

"A rare moment of sincerity in an hours-long speech by a deceitful and hypocritical pharaoh," activist and commentator Sergei Parkhomenko wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "He is sitting there and thinking about Navalny, whom he hunts with his whole pack."

Navalny is one of three opposition leaders who have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms in the past year following trials on charges they say have been fabricated as punishment for public criticism of the invasion of Ukraine or other Kremlin actions. Many other Russians who have denounced the invasion have also been prosecuted.

More than a decade ago, Navalny was among the leaders of a wave of peaceful protests fueled by anger over evidence of rampant fraud in a 2011 parliamentary election and dismay over Putin's decision to return to the presidency in 2012 after a stint as prime minister.

Putin's 'Parody'

Navalny tried to challenge Putin in the most recent presidential vote, in 2018, but was barred from the ballot. His nationwide support network and other organizations he led were deemed extremist and outlawed in 2021, and many of his associates have been prosecuted or have fled Russia to avoid that fate.

On December 8 -- the day Putin confirmed widespread assumption that he would seek reelection in a March 17 vote certain to hand him a new six-year term, barring some enormous and unexpected development -- supporters of Navalny said they had not been able to contact him for three days.

A December 7 post on Navalny's blog, meanwhile, dismissed the upcoming vote as a "parody of an electoral process" and urged Russians to explain to their countrymen that "Putin, in power for 24 years, must not remain for another six years. He will bring harm to Russia. He must go."

On the same day, allies of Navalny disguised anti-Putin statements on billboards in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and several other Russian cities.

The prominent signs bore New Year's greetings along with a QR code that, when scanned with a mobile phone, led to a website titled Russia Without Putin.

When opened, the site includes wording that says: "The results of the voting will be falsified, but our task is to make sure it's clear to everyone…that Russia no longer needs Putin."

That's it from me this week.

If you want to know more, catch up on my podcast The Week Ahead In Russia, out every Monday, here on our site, or wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts).

Yours,

Steve Gutterman