He violently represses his opponents
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This argument is a justification of Putin has all the characteristics of a dictator.
Summary
Quotes
“Reprisals against opposition activists and dissidents intensified as the authorities and the ruling United Russia party faced increasingly critical public opinion in the run-up to parliamentary elections.
Following a politically-motivated trial, prominent opponent Alexei Navalny was sentenced in February to 32 months' imprisonment for violating the conditions of the probationary suspension to which he had been sentenced in a previous, unfounded trial in 2014. That same month, the European Court of Human Rights ordered his immediate release as a provisional measure to guarantee his physical safety. Russia, however, refused to comply. Alexei Navalny has complained of inhumane and degrading treatment, including the administration's refusal to grant him certain essential health care. In June, the regional offices of his movement and two partner NGOs were declared "extremist" and banned by a court ruling. In September, Russia ignored an appeal from the Council of Europe to release the opponent and overturn his convictions. Instead, in October, the authorities announced the opening of five new criminal investigations against him and his associates.
Other collaborators and supporters of Alexei Navalny have been prosecuted throughout the country, including in unfounded criminal and administrative proceedings. In April, in Arkhangelsk, Andrei Borovikov was sentenced to more than two years' imprisonment for "disseminating pornography", for having posted on social networks, in 2014, a clip by the German band Rammstein - a clip that had long since been deleted. In July, Violetta Groudina was hospitalized in Murmansk for 19 days under the pretext of COVID-19, even though she had not contracted the virus. This measure also prevented her from standing in local elections as an independent candidate. Lilia Chanycheva, an activist living in Ufa, was liable to 10 years' imprisonment for her role as regional coordinator of Alexei Navalny's organization.
Other dissident voices have also been suppressed. In May, Nikolai Platoshkin, leader of the For a New Socialism movement, was given a five-year suspended sentence and an exorbitant fine for, according to the prosecution, "calling for large-scale unrest" and disseminating "knowingly false information". He had in fact criticized the public authorities, and in particular their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and had prepared peaceful demonstrations.
A Nizhny Novgorod activist, Mikhail Yossilevich, was falsely accused of cooperating with an "undesirable organization" and threatening a witness. He spent over six months in pre-trial detention. He was released on bail in August under certain restrictions. His trial began in December.
Siberian shaman Alexander Gabychev, who vowed in 2019 to "purge" the Kremlin of President Vladimir Putin, was violently arrested by around 50 police officers at his home in Yakutsk. In July, he was committed by court order to a psychiatric hospital for an indefinite period, with compulsory treatment. In October, he was transferred to a specialized psychiatric facility in Novosibirsk, thousands of kilometers from his home.”
