Vladimir Putin’s autocratic regime is tightening the screws and turning up the pressure on the opposition.
Aleksei Navalny remains on a hunger strike over being denied proper medical care. His supporters accuse the Putin regime of trying to kill him in prison.
Other opposition figures face harassment, police searches, criminal prosecution, and frivolous civil lawsuits from Kremlin surrogates.
But at the same time, Russian civil society has never been more vibrant, more organized, and more determined.
This paradox leaves Russia’s opposition and civic activists with an agonizing choice: emigrate and battle the Kremlin from the relative safety of the West or stay and fight, and risk prison — or worse.
These are no easy answers to this dilemma. And we’ll hear from somebody who has just made this deeply personal choice. Vladimir Milov, one of Russia’s leading opposition figures who recently left Russia, joins host Brian Whitmore and Maria Snegovaya on this week’s episode.