On February 3, an influx of young Russians flooded my Instagram mailbox and followers. Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has just posted my recent Instagram story: a photo of Navalny in court, raising his hands to form the shape of a heart, which made the front page of The Wall Street Journal.
My family emigrated from Russia to the USA in the 1990s, when I was 13, but I could not remember meeting Russian teenagers and young people before: a whole generation growing up under Putin’s government. Through their social media pages on Instagram and TikTok, they appear purposeful, brave and creative. They made political videos on TikTok and Instagram. Some of them have been identified as feminists, vegan activists, dancers, musicians and prospective lawyers. They seem to pull up to the beat of another drum and share a set of universal values that differ from those of their parents and grandparents. It was as if they were visitors from another planet.
When Navalny flew back to Moscow on January 17 and was quickly detained, his team was able to mobilize thousands of people in cities across Russia’s 11 time zones. After the Russian court sentenced Navalny to two and a half years in prison, his supporters continued to protest in the streets. Videos shared on social media showed teenagers tearing up Putin’s portraits in schools and replacing them with photos of Navalny.
On February 14, Valentine’s Day, Navalny’s team held a campaign they called ‘Love Is Stronger than Fear’, inspired by Navalny’s gesture to his wife in court. “We call on all residents of major Russian cities to do a simple thing on February 14 at 20:00,” Navalny’s team wrote. “Go outside and turn on the flash on your phone, turn it on and stand there for a few minutes.”
On Sunday, there were several protests, mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where several hundred women, according to AFP, met in solidarity with Navalny’s wife Yulia. Separately, ‘tens of thousands’ of people responded to Navalny’s call for the Valentine’s Day campaign, braved the winter temperatures and flashed outside for symbolic vigilance in ‘hundreds of courtyards’ across the country. according to estimates by Navalny’s team.
This time the turnout was smaller and more peaceful, without the violent clashes with police and mass detention that marked the pro-Navalny protests last month. Instead, the government’s response is shifting behind the scenes, focusing on pressure on social media platforms and taking action against those who imply that they’re even thinking of taking to the streets. Immediately after the Valentine’s Day events, there were reports of retaliation against those who took part in the campaign, including a COVID-19 nurse, Saidanvar Sulaimonov, who was fired after taking part in the “Love Is Stronger than Fear” campaign and ‘ took a photo of himself wearing indoors with protective gear, Meduza reported.
Even before Sunday’s events, many young people expressed skepticism about the long-term impact of these new wave protests. Aram Badalyam, a 25-year-old indie folk musician based in Krasnodar, southern Russia, the region where Putin’s alleged palace is located, called the protests “toothless”. Navalny’s investigation and the eruption of political activism he saw in the country and in Krasnodar inspired him to write a song about the palace. “Navalny speaks their language,” he says of the new generation of fans. “He is persistent, courageous and brave. Bravery is a rarity in Russia. ”
This is the kind of grassroots mobilization that Navalny has distinguished from other opposition leaders and has been able to connect with this new generation via social media, as in this TikTok video where he shows his investigation into his own poisoning. From providing copies of leaflets that they can put up in their neighborhoods on a Google station to keeping investigative videos, even while Navalny is in jail – his team teaches this new generation a new method of protest and political activism .
“Navalny offers tools, protests for examples, where other opposition members can show up and unite for common goals,” said 23-year-old Nikolai in St. Petersburg, who spoke to The Daily Beast under the pseudonym. “For me, Navalny is also about the people he has gathered around him, people who are fighting the system and helping others.”
Navalny’s anti-corruption activities not only taught this new generation about the state of affairs in their country, but it also taught them how to fight corruption in the existing system. It showed them what works. “I trust Navalny because he provides arguments and facts,” said Catherine Shipilova, a 17-year-old aspiring lawyer who counts the months until she officially becomes an “adult” in Russia. “I intend to apply to the right school. I would like to help people,” she says. “I love Russia, but I am against our current government.”
In an interview with the Russian radio platform Echo Moskvy, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian oil magnate who himself was imprisoned for a decade, noted that Putin’s response to Navalny’s latest investigation into the president’s alleged palace was the break between the ruling regime and show this new generation. This nearly two-hour-long investigation into a palace in southern Russia in southern Russia received more than 112 million views within a month. Putin dismissed the video as boring and called it a “montage”, claiming that “nothing mentioned there as my property belongs to me or my relatives, and never did.” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov continued to deny ownership.
Khodorkovsky calls Putin’s response to the viral video more shocking than the investigation itself. “It’s a joke,” he said. ‘It is natural that the young generation wants something different. The government can listen to them. But for this you need institutions in which you set rules, and the young people live their lives within the framework. But our government does not want to set up frameworks. They want to govern everything to stay in power. ”
A poll by the Levada Center showed that a quarter of Russians saw the palace video, and that younger people, 18-24 years old, absorbed it the most. According to the poll, 37 percent of the younger age group saw it, more than any other group.
Putin’s first public reaction to Navalny’s viral investigation into Putin’s reported palace in southern Russia has been widely mocked on social media. One TikTok video showed Putin speaking from a deep purple ‘hookah’ room that showed a metal pole in the middle of the room, while explaining that there were no documents linking him to the palace.
The Kremlin’s response included a series of denials of any connection to the palace, heavy-handed mass detention, and more technological skills to keep participants ahead of the protests using facial recognition techniques. But the primary focus of the government’s response was to cage social media sites that enable information, mobilization and political involvement.
After the first wave of protests, the Russian media agency Roskomnadzor withdrew the most popular social media agencies, even ordering the removal of protest-related material. On January 29, Roskomnadzor called in representatives of TikTok, Facebook, Telegram and VKontakte, arguing that it was their responsibility to remove posts that encouraged participation in ‘unsanctioned events’, according to the agency’s statement. The agency also ordered several media outlets to delete reports of the Valentine’s Day protest.
These young people are only a fraction of the Russian opposition and Navalny himself does not share all their values. The majority of Russians still get their news from traditional news media, which is more loyal to the Kremlin. But at the moment – after Navalny’s latest poisoning attempt, recovery, return from Germany and hasty sentencing in Moscow – he is the one uniting Russia’s opposition, including this younger generation who can only remember a Russia under Putin.
Navalny was able to capture their imagination and the government’s response was quick. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs even opened an official TikTok account in early February, and dedicates the first two posts to Navalny. For some of his supporters, what resonates most with Navalny is that he provides a tent for the opposition, provides tools and educates them on how to make their voices heard: through social media activism, video and street protests. And they keep listening and taking notes, even with Navalny behind bars.
Nikolai says he plans to continue participating in protests despite his detention. “I think the protest movement will continue, but will take different forms and not just go to specific streets at a specific time,” he says. “I see the future of Russia as democratic, free, with regard to the rule of law and each other. The new generation is less susceptible to state propaganda. ”
“If the decisive order remains the same, we will see nothing improve.” Shipilova tells The Daily Beast. She is concerned that serving a prison sentence will affect Navalny’s chances of being re-elected. “I hope that our country will get better and that we will have laws that are important and necessary.”
Even Alexei Navalny’s tone took on a gloomy, thoughtful tone following the Valentine’s Day events. He was sentenced to almost three years in prison. “The prison is in your head,” he wrote in a recent Instagram post, continuing to compare his prison cell and conditions to that of a spaceship. “Right now, I understand that I’m on a journey into a beautiful new world.”