Another Russian journalist has been detained in Russia for “extremism”, accused of making videos for the team of late dissident Alexei Navalny, the Associated Press international news agency said on Sunday.

Sergei Karelin, who has worked for the AP, is the second journalist arrested over such allegations after Konstantin Gabov, who occasionally worked for Reuters news agency and was detained on Saturday.

“The Associated Press is very concerned by the detention of Russian video journalist Sergei Karelin,” the agency told AFP. “We are seeking additional information.”

Gabov, who according to media reports also worked for Russian television channels Moskva 24 and MIR as well as Belarusian news agency Belsat, will remain in pre-trial detention until at least June 27, the courts’ press service said on Telegram.

Karelin and Gabov are accused of helping to prepare videos to be published on the YouTube channel NavalnyLIVE, a platform used by Navalny’s team, the courts said.

Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, died in murky circumstances in an Arctic prison in February.

His movement is designated as “extremist”, exposing its staff and supporters to prosecution.

Most of Navalny’s allies are in exile or serving lengthy prison sentences.

The Russian authorities have in recent months stepped up the pressure on independent and foreign media in a concerted effort to silence dissident voices following the offensive against Ukraine.

In March, photographer Antonina Kravtsova was also held on “extremism” accusations after frequently covering Navalny’s trials for SOTAvision, one of few media organisations documenting political crackdowns in Russia and considered a “foreign agent” by the authorities.

Sergei Mingazov, a Russian journalist working for the Russian version of Forbes media, was detained on Friday and accused of spreading “false information” about army abuses in Ukraine.

Other jailed journalists include Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who faces spying claims that he and the US authorities reject.

Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has been behind bars since October for not registering as a “foreign agent” as required by the authorities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Centre releases disaster relief funds for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu

The Union government has ordered the release of ₹3,730.32 crore towards “relief assistance for natural calamity” from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) weeks after the governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka moved the Supreme Court seeking relief funds for calamities such as Cyclone Michaung, floods and drought in 2023. 

Over 140 hectares gutted in Uttarakhand forest fires

Massive forest fires sweeping through the dense foliage in the mountains of Uttarakhand for the past 72 hours have gutted over 142 hectares of forest land in the State. With a fire reaching the vicinity of an Air Force Station near the Nanda range, the Indian Air Force on Saturday deployed a Mi-17 V5 helicopter to douse the flames using a ‘Bambi Bucket’.

INDIA bloc plans five Prime Ministers in five years, says PM Modi

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Rahul, Priyanka urged to contest polls from Amethi and Rae Bareli

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2024 polls an opportunity to teach divisive forces a lesson: Yogi

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Congress accuses Anurag Thakur of violating Model Code of Conduct, seeks EC action

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Lok Sabha 2024: Ujjwal Nikam replaces Poonam Mahajan as BJP’s Mumbai North Central candidate

The BJP announced on Saturday its decision to replace incumbent Lok Sabha MP Poonam Mahajan, daughter of former Union Minister late Pramod Mahajan, with lawyer Ujjwal Deorai Nikam for the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha seat. Mr. Nikam, a known figure in the legal circles, has served as a government counsel in the Mumbai terror attacks case.

20 Cambodian soldiers killed in ammunition explosion at a military base

Twenty soldiers were killed and several others injured in an ammunition explosion at a base in the west of Cambodia on April 27 afternoon, Prime Minister Hun Manet said. Mr. Hun Manet said in a Facebook post that he was “deeply shocked” when he received the news of the explosion at the base in Kampong Speu province.

Russia renews attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector as Kyiv launches drones at southern Russia

Russia launched a barrage of missiles against Ukraine overnight, in attacks that appeared to target the country’s energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Russia said its air defence systems had intercepted more than 60 Ukrainian drones over the southern Krasnodar region.

U.S. intelligence believes Putin probably didn’t order Navalny to be killed: Report

U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably didn’t order opposition politician Alexei Navalny killed at an Arctic prison camp in February, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Mr. Navalny, 47 when he died, was Mr. Putin’s fiercest domestic critic. 

Centre allows 99.5k tons of onion exports to 6 neighbouring nations

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U.S. food regulator gathering information on MDH, Everest spices after alleged contamination

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India set to sign trade deal with Oman to expand its Middle East ties

India and Oman will sign a trade deal in the coming months, two Indian government officials said, as New Delhi seeks to expand its ties in the Middle East, where rising tensions are putting major shipping routes at risk. “It will help India with a strategic partner and access to key trade routes in a volatile region,” one official told Reuters.

IPL-17: LSG vs RR | Samson, Jurel ace the chase as Royals pull further away

Sanju Samson (71 n.o., 33b, 7×4, 4×6) and Dhruv Jurel (52 n.o., 34b, 5×4, 2×6) scripted Rajasthan Royals’ umpteenth turn of the plot this Indian Premier League, and took the table topper to a seven-wicket victory over Lucknow Super Giants at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.

IPL-17: DC vs MI | Fraser-McGurk’s blistering knock helps Delhi Capitals see off Mumbai Indians in a runfest

The trend of gargantuan totals — in Indian Premier League in general and at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in particular — continued. So did that of Delhi Capitals winning at home. Riding on Jake Fraser-McGurk’s pyrotechnics up front and Tristan Stubbs’ strong finish, DC posted 257 for four against Mumbai Indians. Despite the MI power-hitters clearing boundaries frequently, the Capitals pace troika of Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, and Rasikh Salam Dar picked wickets at regular intervals to control the game.

People lay flowers at the grave of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny following his funeral at the Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow, Russia, March 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably didn’t order opposition politician Alexei Navalny killed at an Arctic prison camp in February, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Mr. Navalny, 47 when he died, was Mr. Putin’s fiercest domestic critic. His allies, branded extremists by the authorities, accused Mr. Putin of having him murdered and have said they will provide proof to back their allegation.

The Kremlin has denied any state involvement. Last month, Mr. Putin called Mr. Navalny’s demise “sad” and said he had been ready to hand the jailed politician over to the West in a prisoner exchange provided Mr. Navalny never return to Russia. Mr. Navalny’s allies said such talks had been under way.

The Journal, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, said on Saturday that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Mr. Putin probably didn’t order Navalny to be killed in February.

It said Washington had not absolved the Russian leader of overall responsibility for Mr. Navalny’s death however, given the opposition politician had been targeted by Russian authorities for years, jailed on charges the West said were politically motivated, and had been poisoned in 2020 with a nerve agent.

The Kremlin denies state involvement in the 2020 poisoning.

Reuters could not independently verify the Journal report, which cited sources as saying the finding had been “broadly accepted within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department’s intelligence unit.”

The U.S. assessment was based on a range of information, including some classified intelligence, and an analysis of public facts, including the timing of Mr. Navalny’s death and how it overshadowed Mr. Putin’s re-election in March, the paper cited some of its sources as saying.

It cited Leonid Volkov, a senior Navalny aide, as calling the U.S. findings naive and ridiculous.

“A third man has been detained in a bribery case involving one of Russia’s most senior defence officials,” Moscow’s court service said on April 25.

It said businessman Alexander Fomin is suspected of paying bribes to Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov, who was detained on April 24, as well as Mr. Ivanov’s associate, Sergei Borodin. All of the men are to remain in custody until at least June 23.

“It is rare for such a high-ranking official to be accused of a crime in Russia. Mr. Ivanov, an ally of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, was jailed pending an investigation and trial on charges of bribery,” court officials said in a statement. He was in charge of military construction projects and was previously accused of living a lavish lifestyle in anti-corruption investigations conducted by the team of late Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny. It is unclear what sparked the decision to charge him with bribery.

Mr. Ivanov (48) was sanctioned by both the United States and European Union in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on April 24 that the construction projects that were overseen by Mr. Ivanov will continue.

Moscow’s court service said Alexander and Borodin contributed to Mr. Ivanov receiving a “particularly large bribe” — an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison. As part of the case against Alexander and the Deputy Minister, the courts service added that Alexander did not pay for goods, work and services related to repairing and reconstructing buildings.

Russian state news agency Tass reported on Wednesday that a Moscow businessman whose company is involved in construction gave testimony which incriminated the Deputy Defence Minister. Tass did not name the individual who gave the evidence, but public records and Russian newspapers say that Alexander Fomin owns half of the company, called Olimpsitistroy.

In 2021, Mr. Ivanov awarded Alexander and the co-owner of Olimpsitistroy a state award called For Merit to the Fatherland for building medical centers, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

According to a court statement on Wednesday, investigators told the judge that Mr. Ivanov conspired with third parties to receive a bribe in the form of unspecified property services “during contracting and subcontracting work for the needs of the Ministry of Defence.”

Mr. Ivanov’s lawyer, Murad Musayev, told the state news agency Tass on Wednesday that his client is accused of “taking a bribe in the form of free construction and repair work on supposedly his personal properties,” and in turn providing “assistance to companies that were contractors for the Defence Ministry.”

Another lawyer, Denis Baluyev, was quoted by state news agency RIA Novosti as saying that Mr. Ivanov maintains his innocence. Mr. Baluyev told RIA Novosti on Thursday that the authorities froze Mr. Ivanov’s bank accounts and seized his real estate.

According to the Defence Ministry’s website, Mr. Ivanov was appointed in 2016 by a Presidential decree. He oversaw property management, housing and medical support for the military, as well as construction projects.

RIA Novosti quoted Mr. Peskov as saying that Mr. Shoigu and Mr. Putin were informed of Mr. Ivanov’s arrest, which comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine grinds through its third year.

Independent Russian news outlets reported on Wednesday that the bribery charges were intended to hide more serious charges of treason and avoid scandal, citing two unidentified sources close to the Federal Security Service, or FSB.

Mr. Peskov dismissed the suggestion and described the reports as speculation. “There are a lot of rumors. We need to rely on official information,” he told journalists. Mr. Musayev, Mr. Ivanov’s lawyer, also denied any other charges, telling RIA Novosti that Mr. Ivanov faced only bribery allegations.

Before his arrest, Mr. Ivanov was seen attending a meeting with Mr. Shoigu and other top military brass. The move against Mr. Ivanov came nearly a month after Mr. Putin called on the FSB to “keep up a systemic anti-corruption effort” and pay special attention to state defence procurement.

Russian media reported that Mr. Ivanov oversaw some of the construction in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port city that was devastated by bombardment and occupied by Russian forces early in the war.

Zvezda, the official TV channel of the Russian military, reported in summer 2022 that the Ministry was building an entire residential block in Mariupol and showed Mr. Ivanov inspecting construction sites and newly erected buildings.

That same year, the team of Opposition leader Navalny alleged Mr. Ivanov and his family had been enjoying luxurious trips abroad, lavish parties and owned elite real estate. The activists also alleged that Mr. Ivanov’s wife, Svetlana, divorced him in 2022 to avoid sanctions and continued living a lavish lifestyle. Few high-level officials have been prosecuted in Russia.

In April 2023, former Deputy Culture Minister Olga Yarilova was arrested and charged with embezzling more than 200 million rubles ($2.2 million). Olga, who held her post from 2018 to 2022, is on trial and facing a possible seven-year jail term.

Former Economics Minister Alexei Ulyukayev received an eight-year prison sentence in 2017 for accepting a $2 million bribe from one of Mr. Putin’s top associates. The high-profile trial was widely seen as part of infighting between Kremlin clans. Ulyukayev, now 68, was granted early release from prison in May 2022.

Moscow, Russia:

A Moscow court on Friday ordered a journalist who covered the trials of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to be held in pre-trial detention on “extremism” charges.

Prosecutors say Antonina Kravtsova, a correspondent for the independent SotaVision outlet, participated in an “extremist organisation”, charges which carry up to six years in prison.

The Kremlin outlawed Navalny’s organisations as “extremist” before his death and has carried out a crackdown against his allies who stayed in Russia.

“The Basmanny District Court ordered Antonina Kravtsova to be remanded in custody for a period of two months,” the press service for Moscow courts said in a post on Telegram.

Kravtsova, who also goes by the name Antonina Favorskaya, regularly covered Navalny’s trials. She filmed a court hearing of him a day before he died in an Arctic prison colony last month.

She was arrested upon leaving jail earlier this week, where she had already served a 10-day sentence on charges of disobeying police orders. 

She had originally been detained hours after visiting Navalny’s grave in southern Moscow during the Russian presidential election.

Prosecutors say Kravtsova posted materials on Navalny’s social media platforms that are banned in Russia.

In court on Friday, Kravtsova said the case was retribution for an article she wrote about how Navalny was “tortured” in prison, SotaVision reported.

The article was shared on X by Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who described it as an “important text”.

Navalny’s team has condemned the case and on Friday said the Russian regime was trying to create a “new wave of fear” among its critics.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow:

The wife of jailed Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza said on Monday the lives of many political prisoners in Russia, including her husband’s, were at risk in the wake of Alexei Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony last month.

Kara-Murza, who had condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine and lobbied for Western sanctions against Moscow, was sentenced to 25 years last April on treason and other charges that he denied, comparing the case against him to a Stalinist show trial.

It was the harshest sentence imposed on an opposition politician since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022.

“I understand that lives of many people who ended up behind bars today because of their opposition to the regime, many lives are in danger,” said Evgenia Kara-Murza, advocacy director at the Free Russia Foundation, a civil society organisation.

“That is not just my husband’s life who is indeed a years-long opponent of the regime, but also the lives of strong and vocal opponents of Vladimir Putin.”

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic inside Russia, died in a prison camp at the age of 47 on Feb. 16., sparking accusations from his supporters that he had been murdered. The Kremlin has denied any state involvement in his death.

Evgenia Kara-Murza said other activists, including Alexandra Skochilenko, jailed for protesting against the war in Ukraine by replacing supermarket price tags with calls to stop the conflict, and Alexei Gorinov, a Moscow district councillor also jailed for criticising Russia’s invasion, were also at risk.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, who suffers from a neurological condition after surviving two attempts to poison him, was transferred to a new Siberian penal colony in January and placed in solitary confinement, his wife said.

“Now he’s being held by basically the same people who tried to kill him twice in the past,” Evgenia Kara-Murza said.

She said her husband was being held in a small cell that measures around six square meters, with a bed affixed to the wall during the day to prevent him from lying down and one backless stool. He is not allowed to receive phone calls or visits.

Last December, prior to his transfer, Kara-Murza had a brief telephone conversation with his three children.

“We have three kids, and that was a 15-minute phone call, which meant that they each got five minutes on the phone with their dad,” Evgenia Kara-Murza said.

“I had to measure those minutes with a timer.”

 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony last month. File image shows people laying flowers during a gathering. 
| Photo Credit: AP

A Moscow court has sentenced two university students to more than three years in prison for their involvement with the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Russia in 2021 outlawed Navalny’s organisations as “extremist” and has handed down lengthy prison sentences to several of the Kremlin critic’s aides and supporters.

Moscow’s Khoroshevsky District Court sentenced Ivan Trofimov, 23, and Alina Olekhnovich, 22, to three-and-a-half years in a penal colony on charges of participating in an “extremist” organisation, state media and rights groups reported on Thursday, citing the court’s press service.

The pair were sentenced on Wednesday, according to a database on the court’s website.

Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony last month, where he was serving a 19-year sentence widely seen as political retribution for campaigning against the Kremlin.

His allies have accused the Kremlin of ordering his killing and Western leaders say President Vladimir Putin is “responsible” for his death.

Olekhnovich and Trofimov — contemporary art students at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics — were arrested in July 2023, according to the Memorial human rights group.

Most of Navanly’s top aides fled into exile as the group was targeted by Russian authorities.

Following Navalny’s death last month, his wife Yulia Navalnaya has pledged to continue her husband’s work.

Russia’s Leonid Volkov. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s long-time aide Leonid Volkov was assaulted with a hammer in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on March 12, former Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said.

“Volkov has just been attacked outside his house. Someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes, after which the attacker started hitting Leonid with a hammer,” she wrote on social media website X.

She posted images showing Mr. Volkov with a bruise on his forehead, blood coming from a leg wound, and a vehicle with damage to the driver’s door and window.

Lithuanian police said they had been informed a man was beaten outside his home, and were investigating.

A large part of Navalny’s political vehicle, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which includes Mr. Volkov, are residing in European Union and NATO member Lithuania after fleeing Russia.

Warsaw:

Leonid Volkov, a close ally of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was attacked outside his home in Lithuania on Tuesday, independent Russian media outlets and Navalny’s spokeswoman said.

“Leonid Volkov has just been attacked outside his house. Someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes, after which the attacker started hitting Leonid with a hammer,” Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.

Navalny’s allies shared photos showing Volkov’s injuries, including a black eye, a red mark on his forehead and bleeding on his leg, which had soaked through his jeans.

Yarmysh said that Volkov was now at home and emergency services were on their way.

She did not say where Volkov lived, but Russia’s independent Mediazona news outlet said he was currently in Lithuania.

Volkov was a close ally of Navalny, working as the late leader’s ex-chief of staff and as chair of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until 2023.

The attack comes almost a month after Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison, which Volkov blamed directly on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Thousands of Russians braved the cold for hours earlier this month to honour the Opposition politician Alexei Navalny after his funeral. They chanted anti-war slogans and covered his gravesite with so many flowers that it disappeared from view.

It was one of the largest displays of defiance against President Vladimir Putin since he invaded Ukraine, and happened just weeks before an election he is all but assured to win. But Russians watching television saw none of it.

A leading state television channel opened with its host railing against the West and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO.) Another channel led with a segment extolling the virtues of domestically built streetcars. And there was the usual deferential coverage of Mr. Putin.

Since coming to power almost 25 years ago, Mr. Putin has eliminated nearly all independent media and the Opposition voices in Russia — a process he ramped up after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin’s control over media is now absolute.

State television channels cheer every battlefield victory, twist the pain of economic sanctions into positive stories, and ignore that tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine.

Some Russians seek news from abroad or on social media using tools to circumvent state restrictions. But most still rely on state television, which floods them with the Kremlin’s view of the world. Over time, the effect is to whittle away their desire to question it.

“Propaganda is a kind of drug and I don’t mind taking it,” said Victoria, 50, from Russian-occupied Crimea. She refused to give her last name because of concerns about her safety.

“If I get up in the morning and hear that things are going badly in our country, how will I feel? How will millions of people feel? … Propaganda is needed to sustain people’s spirit,” she said.

Vladimir Putin’s broken promises

When Mr. Putin first addressed Russians as their new President on the last day of 1999, he promised a bright path after the chaotic years that followed the Soviet Union’s collapse.

“The state will stand firm to protect freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of mass media,” he said.

Yet just over a year later, he broke that promise: The Kremlin neutered its main media critic, the independent TV channel NTV, and went after the media tycoons who controlled it.

In the following decades, multiple Russian journalists, including investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, were killed or jailed, and the Russian parliament passed laws curbing press freedoms. The crackdown intensified two years ago after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

New laws made it a crime to discredit the Russian military and anyone spreading “false information” about the war faced up to 15 years in prison. Almost overnight, nearly all independent media outlets suspended operations or left the country. The Kremlin blocked access to independent media and some social media sites, and Russian courts jailed two journalists with U.S. citizenship, Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva.

“The Putin regime is based on propaganda and fear. And propaganda plays the most important role because people live in an information bubble,” said Marina Ovsyannikova, a former state television journalist who quit her job at a leading Russian state television channel in an on-air protest against the war.

The Kremlin regularly meets with the heads of TV stations to give “special instructions on what can be said on air,” said Ms. Ovsyannikova.

Every day, TV stations serve up a mix of bluster, threats and half-truths — telling viewers the West wants to destroy their country, that sanctions make them stronger and that Russia is winning the war.

The Kremlin’s goal is to squeeze out any Opposition so that citizens “remain inert and compliant,” said Sam Greene, a director at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.

The strength of the Kremlin’s grip on the media means that while Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony was major news in the West, many Russians didn’t know about it.

One out of five Russians said they had not heard about his death, according to the independent Russian pollster Levada Center. Half said they only had vague knowledge of it.

The most memorable event for Russians in February, the polling found, was the Russian military’s capture of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka.

By trumpeting military victories, the Kremlin is focussed on creating a “happy feeling,” ahead of the elections, said Jade McGlynn, an expert on Russian propaganda at King’s College London.

Anti-war candidates are banned from the ballot, and there is no significant challenger to Mr. Putin. State television broadcasts dull debates between representatives of Mr. Putin’s opponents.

President Putin is not openly campaigning but is frequently shown touring the country — admiring remote tomato farms or visiting weapons factories.

The idea that Russia is thriving under Mr. Putin is a potent message for people who have seen their living standards fall since the war — and sanctions — began, driving up prices for food and other staples.

The war has also pushed Russia’s defence industry into overdrive, and people like Victoria from Crimea have noticed.

“If they tell me that new jobs have appeared, should I be happy or sad? Is this propaganda or truth?” she asked.

“Granules of truth”

Russian propaganda is “sophisticated and multi-faceted,” said Francis Scarr, a journalist who analyses Russian television for BBC Monitoring.

There is some “outright lying,” he said, but often Russian state media “takes a granule of truth and massively over-amplifies it.” For example, while unemployment in Russia is at a record low, news reports don’t explain it’s partly because tens of thousands of Russians have been sent to fight in Ukraine or have fled the country.

Many Russians know this, yet the idea that Russia is prospering – even if it contradicts what they see with their own eyes – is still attractive.

“The greatness of Russia tends to be measured throughout history in the greatness of the state and not in the greatness of the quality of life for its people,” said McGlynn of King’s College London.

Ahead of the election, state TV is ramping up that nationalistic theme, telling viewers it is their patriotic duty to vote. The Kremlin, experts say, is worried Russians may not come out in large numbers.

Videos released on social media – but not directly linked to the Kremlin – are aimed at combating apathy, especially among younger voters.

In one, a woman berates her husband for not voting. “What difference does it make? Will he not get elected without us,” the husband asks, indirectly referring to Mr. Putin. To which his wife warns him: inaction could leave their child without maternity payments.

The Kremlin wants high voter turnout, experts say, to lend an aura of legitimacy to Mr. Putin, whose re-election would keep him in power through at least 2030.

“No Opposition in modern Russia”

People can bypass government restrictions by using special links to foreign websites or accessing the Internet over private networks.

But it’s questionable whether many Russians — especially those living in Mr. Putin’s conservative heartland — even want to hear news conveyed in the language of the liberal West.

To “break through to the people who are not putting flowers on Navalny’s grave, they’re going to have to meet those viewers where they are and speak to them in a language that they understand,” said Greene. That means striking a balance between criticism of Mr. Putin’s regime and pride in the nation.

Even those soothed by the Kremlin’s propaganda also could long for a real choice at the polls.

“I don’t see any Opposition in modern Russia,” said Victoria, pointing out that the candidates running alongside Mr. Putin all have the Kremlin’s approval. “I don’t plan to vote in the elections,” she added.