Putin adopting Stalinist tactics

All that is inhumane about Vladimir Putin’s regime is reflected in the additional 19-year prison term imposed on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, 47, by a court in the penal colony (modern-day gulag) where he is incarcerated, 250km east of Moscow. Not content with the attempt by security police to kill Mr Navalny in 2020 using nerve gas, and the 11-year, six-month jail sentence he is already serving, the Russian President has made the life of his main critic far worse. The new sentence comes with conditions that are aimed at intimidating others who may be tempted to follow in Mr Navalny’s footsteps at a time when the regime is faced with increasing dissent over its war in Ukraine.

The conditions include a ban on Mr Navalny talking to other prisoners and 24/7 exposure to constant bright lights in his cell. They also put an end to what little contact he was allowed with close family and lawyers.

Showing the quiet courage and resolve that have won him global admiration for his battle against Mr Putin’s regime, Mr Navalny has spoken phlegmatically about his fate. He emphatically denied the latest charges of “funding extremism”, spurring youngsters to break the law and trying to “rehabilitate” Nazism in Russia, the absurd theme that underpins Mr Putin’s inhumane onslaught against Ukraine.

“The number (of years of the new sentence) doesn’t matter,” Mr Navalny said before he was carted off to his cell after a brief court process in the prison colony. “I understand very well that like many political prisoners, I am serving a life sentence – where life is measured by the duration of my life or the life of this regime.”

Bleak though Mr Navalny’s prospects are, they are not the end of his persecution. Other trumped-up allegations of fraud and terrorism are reportedly pending against him. The new sentence coincides with Mr Putin’s attempts to root out all criticism of his regime, especially over Ukraine. Activists and journalists have been warned they risk harder prison terms for speaking out.

A 25-year sentence imposed on dissident journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza for alleged treason for criticising Mr Putin is part of the same process. So is the 8½-year term imposed on opposition politician Ilya Yashin, charged with spreading false information about the faltering Ukraine campaign. Russia’s rogue regime is resorting to the tactics Josef Stalin used to crush dissent. It will be nine years before Mr Navalny begins his new sentence, if he survives. He is showing the same dignity and dedication to freedom and justice that won Nelson Mandela global admiration during his incarceration in apartheid South Africa. Mr Navalny deserves no less support.