Russian opposition figures vanish: Is Kremlin targeting dissent?

Four Russian political prisoners have been transported from detention centers and colonies in an unknown direction within 24 hours. There is no information on their whereabouts. A Russian political scientist believes this may be a deliberate action by the authorities, one of the operations aimed at the opposition.

Her husband, Almaz Gatin, discovered Lilia Chanysheva's disappearance. Chanysheva was a key associate of Alexei Navalny, who was brutalized by the Russian regime. On July 28, when Gatin brought her a package to the penal colony (IK-28) in the Perm region of Russia, he was told that his wife "left the facility on July 26" and provided no other information.

Chanysheva was arrested in Ufa in November 2021. She was the first to be detained in a case concerning the creation of an alleged "extremist community." Navalny and his associates were persecuted under the exact charges. The court sentenced her to 9.5 years in prison.

Among the missing is also Ksenia Fadeeva. She was the head of Navalny's office in Ufa. On July 29, a lawyer wanted to visit her in a penal colony (IK-9) in Novosibirsk. The guards told him that Ksenia had "fainted." They refused to answer questions about where, when, and why. The lawyer formally requested information in writing.

Fadeeva was sentenced in December 2023 to 9 years in prison under articles related to creating an "extremist community" and participating in a "non-profit organization that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens."

Among the missing is also the Russian artist Aleksandra Skoczylenko, whose disappearance was reported by a support group.

The artist was taken on July 28 from Pretrial Detention Center No. 5 "Arsenalka" in St. Petersburg, reportedly to Moscow. In November 2023, the court found Skoczylenko guilty of spreading "fakes" about the military and sentenced her to 7 years in prison.

The artist was detained in the spring of 2022 for swapping price tags in a store with stickers containing information about the war in Ukraine.

The last of the missing, Oleg Orlov, disappeared from Pretrial Detention Center No. 2 in Syzran on July 29. His lawyer was informed that the convict had "left." They refused to answer any questions, and the lawyer was asked to submit a written request on the matter.

Oleg Orlov is a Russian human rights activist and co-founder of the Memorial Association, which Russian authorities dissolved in 2021.

Memorial Association was one of Russia's oldest and most distinguished non-governmental organizations. It worked on defending human rights and documenting Stalinist crimes. Until its closure by the Russian regime on December 28, 2021, it conducted historical research to disseminate knowledge about the victims of repression in the USSR. Oleg Orlov, one of its founders and co-chairmen, was an observer for Memorial in armed conflicts in the former Soviet Union, including the war in Chechnya.

In October 2023, Orlov was fined for multiple "discrediting" of the army based on an article titled "They Wanted Fascism. They Got It." However, the case was reopened for reconsideration, and in February 2024, Orlov was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.

Russian political scientist Abbas Galiamov admits that the simultaneous disappearance of four political prisoners could be an operation by the authorities aimed at "stirring up the opposition society."

"For hawks, the worse, the better. The louder the scandal and the stronger the protest moods, the greater powers they will demand from Putin," he explains, adding that in this way, security bloc representatives could gain the right to intervene in processes still in Putin's hands.

"It is about loudly outraging the opposition and presenting all the 'lost' alive and unharmed after a few days. Then, they can mock the 'hysterical' public opinion for 'making a fuss over trifles,'" notes the political scientist.

Galiamov believes several such operations will allow the Kremlin to discredit the opposition "in the eyes of the undecided, who are just starting to look in its direction."