Russia’s latest crackdown on dissent is much more sweeping than ever before

The Kremlin is keeping a close eye on “foreign agents" and “undesirables” — and Belarus

Analysis by Maria Snegovaya

August 25, 2021 at 6:42 p.m. EDT

Police detain a journalist with a poster that reads, “We will not stop being journalists,” in Moscow on Aug. 21. Russian police have detained several journalists who protested authorities' decision to label a top independent TV channel as a “foreign agent."(Denis Kaminev/AP)

Russians — and longtime Russia watchers — have grown accustomed to political repression campaigns the government of Vladimir Putin has regularly launched over the past 20 years. But the situation in 2021, in the lead-up to parliamentary elections Sept. 19, appears quite different.

In the past, the Russian government would target specific organizations or individuals, relying on this selective repression to motivate self-censorship among the rest of the population. In the past year, however, the Kremlin has now attacked journalists, lawyers, activists and opposition politicians — targeting virtually all segments of Russia’s civil society. Some Russians were arrested or forced into exile, while others are jobless after the government shut down foreign or nongovernmental entities.