Abstract
Over the past three years, the Russian authorities have been intensively creating a submissive and humble, comfortable information field for themselves, persecuting whistleblower journalists and their lawyers. And if the case of Ivan Golunov was remembered as a triumph of public outcry, then in the future the situation changed dramatically for the worse: a 9-year term for anti-corruption investigator Alexei Navalny, a 15-year sentence for publicist and head of the Karelian branch of Memorial Yuri Dmitriev, a 22-year sentence for journalist Ivan Safronov, the forced liquidation of the Open Russia movement, a 4-year suspended sentence for human rights activist Anastasia Shevchenko, the closure of Memorial and Astrea - the list, alas, is much more impressive than the few examples mentioned above.
In 2021 alone, more than 100 individuals were recognized as "foreign agents" in Russia, and the number of political prisoners exceeded 1,000. Naturally, fear of reprisals reigns in the country, but, by the way, even this does not stop journalists and human rights activists loyal to their cause.
What do they have to face in trying to establish justice?