As recently as 2011, there were so few political prisoners in Russia that you could count them on your fingers. Everyone knew their names.
In 2012, there were many more political prisoners, but we still remembered their names.
Now there are so many political prisoners in Russia that no one even knows the exact number—let alone their names.
For “extremist crimes” alone, over five years (2011–2015), courts in the Russian Federation handed down 1,458 sentences. Acquittals: 0.
So many people are being convicted for likes and reposts that it no longer even attracts media attention. It has become ordinary. Routine.
There are good, decent people who go to court hearings, organize fundraising, arrange letter deliveries, and provide other support—but there are not many of them.
Russia has no mass movement in support of political prisoners, and it badly needs one. For there to be no political prisoners, tens and hundreds of thousands of people must regularly remind themselves and others that, for now, they still exist.
At ACF (the Anti-Corruption Foundation), we decided to launch such a campaign, and we urge you to join it. The idea is simple: every Thursday, do something to remind the people around you about political prisoners. Wear a T-shirt with a political prisoner’s face on it, put a mug with their surname on your desk at work. Write a letter. Post something on social media.
This idea was born at ACF while I was under house arrest; the team created this website: https://chetverg.navalny.com. Later they added Oleg Navalny, and now we have decided that we need to gradually add everyone.
So far, we have prepared T-shirts featuring quotes from people convicted under politically motivated charges. You can download the design and print a T-shirt yourself, or order one from the store. The T-shirts are sold in the store at cost; the Foundation is not involved in producing or selling them and receives no income from them.
You can also write letters through the website. We send them with the help of the RosUznik project. Our thanks to them for that.
We will keep developing the site. We would be grateful for designs for new T-shirts, mugs, and any other merchandise, as well as ideas for what else could be used for “Political Prisoner Thursday.” We need simple things that anyone can easily do.
We thank the studio http://www.contrastfoundry.com/ for the T-shirt designs.
Website design by Andrey Gargul.