Exile or Jail: The Grim Choice Facing Russian Opposition Leaders

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Experts say the current exodus of journalists and dissidents is the biggest wave of political emigration in the country’s post-Soviet history.

The Russian opposition activists Aleksei A. Navalny, Lyubov Sobol and Ivan Zhdanov taking part in a rally last year in Moscow. Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters
MOSCOW — Evoking the dark era of Soviet repression, Russian politicians and journalists are being driven into exile in growing numbers.

The steady stream of politically motivated emigration that had accompanied President Vladimir V. Putin’s two-decade rule turned into a torrent this year. Opposition figures, their aides, rights activists and even independent journalists are increasingly being given a simple choice: flee or face prison.

A top ally of the imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny left Russia this month, state media said, adding her to a list of dozens of dissidents and journalists believed to have departed this year. Taken together, experts say, it is the biggest wave of political emigration in Russia’s post-Soviet history.

This year’s forced departures recall a tactic honed by the K.G.B. during the last decades of the Soviet Union, when the secret police would tell some dissidents they could go either west or east — into exile or to a Siberian prison camp. Now, as then, the Kremlin appears to be betting that forcing high-profile critics out of the country is less of a headache than imprisoning them, and that Russians abroad are easy to paint as traitors in cahoots with the West.

“Their strategy is: First, squeeze them out,” said Dmitri G. Gudkov, a popular Moscow opposition politician who fled in June. “And if you can’t squeeze them out, throw them in jail.” » | Anton Troianovski* | Monday, August 30, 2021

* Anton Troianovski is the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times. He was previously Moscow bureau chief of The Washington Post and spent nine years with The Wall Street Journal in Berlin and New York. @antontroian

Malaysia: Anwar Ibrahim in Second Sodomy Trial
THE TELEGRAPH: Malaysia's opposition leader has appeared in court to face sodomy charges for the second time in a decade and threatened to call the prime minister as a witness.

Anwar says the new allegations are a conspiracy to neutralise his career, after he rallied the opposition to unprecedented election gains in 2008 and threatened the government's half-century-long hold on power. Photograph: The Telegraph
Anwar Ibrahim, who led his party to record gains in the 2008 election, said the charges were the result of "the machinations of a dirty, corrupt few".

A 25-year-old former male aide, Saiful Bukhari, accused Anwar of sodomy. He faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted – a ruling that would effectively end the 62-year-old's political career. Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia. >>> Barney Henderson in Kuala Lumpur | Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Iran Opposition Leaders Speak Amid Crackdown
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: BEIRUT -- Iranian opposition figures re-emerged to accuse the government of a virtual coup against its people and plan a new political party, even as the regime hardened its crackdown on opponents and accused them of endangering national security.

The tensions within Iran reignited just as Tehran's diplomatic conflict with the European Union heated up, with the government threatening to cut off relations with EU countries unless they apologize for considering pulling their ambassadors out of Iran.

Increasingly, the government has been seeking to cast its opponents as outlaws. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has been blamed for the blood spilled during the clashes between protestors and security forces over the outcome of the presidential election, in which the government says he came in a distant second to the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On Wednesday a student wing of the Basij -- plainclothes militia responsible for crushing protestors with guns, batons and chains -- asked Tehran's chief prosecutor to investigate Mr. Mousavi's role in "destabilizing national security." If charged and convicted, Mr. Mousavi could face a maximum 10 years in prison.

Mr. Mousavi lashed back, joined by former President Mohammad Khatami, an influential cleric who has supported Mr. Mousavi's campaign but who had become quiet as the regime made clear it wouldn't accept further opposition to the election results.

In a statement posted on his Web site, Mr. Khatami accused Iran's leadership of a "velvet coup against the people and democracy" and criticized what he called "a poisonous security situation" in the wake of violent street protests.

Mr. Mousavi announced that he plans to form a political party with a group of like-minded intellectuals. He said the party would make public all the allegations of vote fraud that he and their candidates have made, and pursue their complaints through the judiciary.

"They keep asking me to forgive and forget. I will not compromise nor negotiate over the vote and the right of the public," Mr. Mousavi said in his statement, his ninth since election unrest began, posted on his personal Web site.

The post-election unrest over the disputed presidential vote has created the worst crisis in the Islamic republic's 30-year history. As security forces crushed street protests, the regime began pursuing the line that the turmoil was conceived by reformers and funded by Westerners -- namely Americans and British. >>> Farnaz Fassihi with contributions from Marc Champion in Brussels | Thursday, July 02, 2009