Today, the court sentenced Andrey Pivovarov to 4 years in a penal colony. Two days ago, politician Ilya Yashin was sent to pre-trial detention. Before that, municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov was sentenced to 7 years in prison. Hundreds of people across Russia are being prosecuted in new criminal cases, and thousands face administrative charges.
The authorities waited until civil society was fragmented and suppressed and then turned to repressions—on a scale and with a brutality perhaps unprecedented in modern Russian history. The country has crossed a line and entered a new, darker phase of existence—one that demands from us a new level of unity and active resistance.
We have no moral right to pretend nothing is happening or to give up. Moreover, we simply cannot afford it—because unopposed repressions only grow stronger. These repressions now target not only public opposition politicians but also ordinary people.
The more we turn a blind eye, the more criminal cases against innocent people emerge. The less we resist, the longer the sentences become. Every day, they come for another activist, journalist, or politician. We are being destroyed, one by one.
That is why we call on everyone to unite and actively fight back. We must resist repressions together. We have fewer ways to protest left, but this only means we must use every remaining method to its fullest.
The case of Yulia Tsvetkova, who was acquitted on rehabilitative grounds, shows that every action, no matter how small, is significant—victory is built from these small acts. And even though success isn’t always guaranteed, we must always try—because we are responsible for our country and our fellow citizens.
Sign petitions, distribute flyers about political prisoners, join pickets in Russia and abroad, send appeals to deputies and officials at all levels, write to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee, create art, compose songs, speak out on social media. Find a thousand ways to protest—just don’t stop fighting!
After all, the free, democratic, and humanistic Russia we strive for will not build itself. We must be the ones to achieve a change of power and reforms. We will never succeed if we fail to recognize our responsibility, unite, and fight for ourselves and our future.
