Persecution in Russia: a woman who donated 41 dollars to Navalny's anti-corruption fund was sentenced to four years in prison

A person places flowers on the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as they commemorate the first anniversary of his death at a cemetery in Moscow, Russia, on February 16, 2025 (REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina)Russian justice sentenced Yelena Perepelitse, a 60-year-old psychologist and member of Yabloko, to four years in prison this Thursday for donating 3,500 rubles, about 41 dollars, to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), created by the murdered opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Simonovsky Court of Moscow found Perepelitse guilty of "financing extremist activities," an offense under Article 282.3 of the Russian Criminal Code. The woman had been in detention since July. The opposition party, which was barred from the last elections, reported on Telegram that the charges were based on seven transfers of 500 rubles, about 6 dollars each, made to the FBK from August 2021. Perepelitse denied remembering those payments and told the court that she would not have supported an activity that the authorities consider extremist. "This contradicts my convictions, values, and life principles. I prefer to talk, explain, and find compromises. That is why I do not remember making that payment (...) I could not, in my right mind, have made that transfer for an extremist activity," she said before the sentencing. The convicted woman recalled that she worked as a psychologist with victims of domestic violence, people with suicidal tendencies, wives of combatants in Ukraine, and refugees from the annexed Ukrainian regions. She also asked that it be considered a mitigating circumstance that, until her arrest, she was caring for her 85-year-old mother. The woman had traveled from Vladivostok, in Russia's Far East, to spend her final years with her daughter. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends via videoconference from Moscow (REUTERS/Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev)In recent years, Russian authorities have handed down prison sentences to citizens accused of sending donations to the FBK, an organization that published investigations into alleged cases of corruption in the public administration. The sentence comes amid a series of convictions against members of Yabloko, the only legal political party in Russia that opposes the war in Ukraine. Two of its vice presidents received prison sentences, including Lev Sloshberg, who was sentenced to 11 years. On Thursday, an appeals court also rejected the appeal of Vasili Neustroev, a Yabloko member in Saint Petersburg and electoral observer, against the 10-year prison sentence he had previously received. Russian justice opened an administrative case against Nikolai Rybakov, the leader of Yabloko, after he wrote messages in favor of peace on electoral ballots during the last legislative elections in Saint Petersburg. The leader wrote "Yabloko. For peace" and "Yabloko. For a ceasefire agreement," amid the invasion of Ukraine, on some of the ballots he filled out when voting on September 20. A court in Saint Petersburg initiated proceedings for "petty hooliganism," as reported by Yabloko on its Telegram channel. The penalty could reach 15 days of arrest or a fine, according to precedents from similar cases. Rybakov showed the ballots to the press before depositing them in the ballot box. The party noted that the case originated from the "vote against all parties." The leader of the Russian party Yabloko, Nikolai Rybakov (EFE/EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV)Faced with this situation, Rybakov asked his supporters to spoil their ballots in places where there were no pacifist candidates from the party. The party did not win seats in the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, and denounced irregularities during the elections. United Russia, the Kremlin's party, obtained 77% of the Duma seats, its best result in history, according to figures cited by Yabloko. The Russian opposition leader died on February 16, 2024, at the age of 47, in an Arctic penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence. The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service reported at the time that he felt unwell after a walk and lost consciousness, although his allies and Western governments held the Kremlin responsible for his death. Navalny had been imprisoned since January 2021, when he returned to Russia after receiving treatment in Germany for the poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent he suffered the previous year. Russian authorities imposed several sentences on him, the last one being 19 years for extremism charges. The leader became the most visible figure of the opposition to Vladimir Putin after driving investigations into alleged corruption by officials and businessmen close to power. In 2011, he created the Anti-Corruption Foundation, known by its Russian acronym FBK, which published reports on the assets and businesses of members of the Russian political elite. The leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny (REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File)That same year, he rose to national prominence as one of the leaders of the protests against the Russian legislative elections, which were questioned over fraud allegations. The protests brought together thousands of people in Moscow and other cities. Navalny studied Law at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia and later studied Finance at the Financial Academy of the Russian Government. Before establishing himself as an activist, he worked as a lawyer and was involved in Yabloko, a liberal opposition party. His team used blogs, videos, and social media to disseminate investigations into alleged corruption. That work made the opposition leader one of the best-known critical voices against the Russian government both inside and outside the country. (With information from EFE)