Vladimir Putin’s henchmen target Russia’s universities and students

AS ALEXEI NAVALNY, Russia’s leading opposition politician, was being hauled off to jail in January, four editors of “Doxa”, an online student magazine, posted a YouTube video. The two men and two women were students at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, generally considered to be Russia’s best liberal university. They spoke out about the intimidation being deployed by the staff of schools and universities in order to dissuade young people from joining a planned protest against Mr Navalny’s mistreatment.

The four appealed to universities across the country. “Expelling students for taking part in peaceful action is illegal. All you will achieve is to destroy science and education in Russia,” said Armen Aramyan, one of the four. But they also appealed to fellow students. “Don’t be scared and don’t abstain. It is our lawful right to express protest by any peaceful means. The state has declared war on youth, but the youth is us and we will certainly prevail,” said another of the quartet.

On April 14th, as part of that war, Russian prosecutors arrested Mr Aramyan and the three other “Doxa”editors and charged them with “encouraging minors to take part in illegal action”, by which they meant the protest in January. Their video has been taken down and they have been under house arrest ever since. The case has brought them...