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The Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, approved a new law on Tuesday that prohibits the disclosure of the personal data of Russian security agents, that is, policemen, investigators and intelligence agents. The law was discussed very quickly, without comparison. It was approved after Alexei Navalny, Putin’s main opponent, posted online a recording of a phone call in which an agent from the FSB, Russia’s main intelligence agency, said that the poisoning of which Navalny had been the victim. last August it was organized by the FSB itself. The registered agent also gave the names of the two agents who had participated in the poisoning: Alexey Alexandrov, already identified by a previous journalistic investigation, and Ivan Osipov.
– Read also: A Russian intelligence agent confessed to poisoning Navalny
The law passed Tuesday is just one of the measures the Russian government is promoting with the aim of cracking down on dissent online. Further restricting freedom of information in Russia could have important consequences for the oppositions, which in many cases have no other means of informing and reporting, given that the vast majority of the press is under the control of the regime.
The new law, which has not yet been approved by the Senate and signed by Putin (both measures are taken for granted) to enter into force, provides for the protection of personal data of members of the Russian security forces “regardless of whether there is a direct threat to their security ”: previously the prohibition on disseminating information of this type was linked only to the presence of direct threats.
The law is one of several measures supported by the Russian government to weaken the opposition and, above all, to prevent Navalny and his allies from repeating the unexpected success achieved in local elections last fall. On Wednesday, for example, the Duma passed another law that broadens the concept of “foreign agent”, allowing to include in this definition legally unregistered associations and foreign journalists dealing with politics: unregistered “foreign agents” legally. they can face sentences of up to five years in prison.
Other measures desired by the government are the prohibition of organizing spontaneous protests, greater restrictions on content published online and the possibility of closing YouTube, a platform widely used by Navalny himself to disseminate his anti-corruption investigations and make himself known at the national level.
Alexei Navalny in a still image from the video posted on his YouTube channel, December 21, 2020 (ANSA / YOUTUBE ALEXEI NAVALNY)
Discussion and approval of some of the government’s measures have accelerated considerably in recent days, following the publication by Navalny of the latest part of the investigation into his poisoning.
The research was published by a group of international newspapers, including Bellingcat and the CNN, who reported how Navalny contacted the agents responsible for the operation against him by telephone and, using a false identity, made one of them confess that the FSB had been responsible for the poisoning. The video recording of the call between Navalny and the FSB agent was viewed 16 million times in 24 hours. The Russian government has denied any involvement in the matter, despite Putin admitting that Navalny was under close surveillance prior to the poisoning.
The impression, however, is that the government fears that this whole story could provoke a new setback in support for the Kremlin, which comes from a complicated year, both due to growing discontent over the progressive reduction in real income, and due to a management . often improvised response to the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, the Russian government wants to curb the opposition, and Navalny in particular, especially in view of the parliamentary elections scheduled for next year.
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