Matthew 24:6 “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.”

Important Takeaways:

• Putin’s Latest Crackdowns – A New Low
  • While the world focuses on the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the midst of a massive crackdown on what remains of the opposition to his rule.
  • In late December, Russia’s Supreme Court ordered International Memorial and its sister organization, Memorial Human Rights Centre, the oldest human rights groups in the country, to be forcibly closed down.
  • International Memorial documented the political repression and historical crimes of the Soviet Union, including the Gulag prison-camp system, and commemorated its victims.
  • Also in late December, a Russian court ordered the prison sentence of historian Yuri Dmitriev extended to 15 years. Dmitriev worked with International Memorial for three decades to uncover, among other things, mass graves from the era of Stalin’s rule.
  • Now, in Putin’s most recent crackdown, anti-corruption activist and opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Putin’s fiercest critic — already serving a sentence of 3½ years in a penal colony on trumped up charges of fraud — is facing a new trial.
  • Navalny’s foundation, and all associated organizations, were labeled “extremist” by a Moscow court and thereby effectively outlawed. The new charges could lead to up to 15 additional years in prison for Navalny
  • In addition to putting Navalny on trial once more, Russian authorities are seeking to remove all references to Navalny’s anti-corruption work from media outlets, including references to Navalny and his team’s video report, “Putin’s Palace,” which was released in January 2021.

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