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Russia Targets Activists' Families as Efforts to Muzzle Dissent Spread
[Moscow Times] "They took my relatives to the war in Ukraine." In an emotional Instagram post, exiled Chechen human rights lawyer Abubakar Yangulbaev said authorities in his home region had forcefully taken four of his closest male relatives to the frontlines in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Donetsk region. It was far from the first time Yangulbaev’s family has been targeted, he claims, as a result of his activism and criticism of Chechnya’s leadership. In July, a Chechen court sentenced Yangulbaev’s mother to 5.5 years in prison in a move that human rights groups dubbed retaliation for the activities of Yangulbaev and his two brothers — all vocal critics of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. "The protest against us, harassment, intimidation, persecutions, relatives renouncing us publically, taking my mother hostage and taking away our motherland — all of that wasn’t enough for the government," Yangulbaev said in his post on Monday. As Russia’s crackdown on dissenters has intensified, so too have the ripple effects on the family members of Kremlin critics, who are often not involved in politics themselves. Beyond already well-publicized instances, such as the imprisonment of Yuriy Zhdanov, the father of Alexei Navalny’s aide Ivan Zhdanov, activists who spoke to The Moscow Times confirmed dozens of ongoing cases of persecution of government critics’ families. But even some of the most vocal Kremlin critics were unwilling to go on record about the harassment faced by their loved ones, fearing it could make the situation worse for those left at home. Posted by: Enver Slager8035 2023-08-12 |
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