By Diana Rudakova | Team Navalny Fundraising Manager
September was an intense and productive month for the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Despite relentless repression and censorship, our team continues to investigate corruption, expose Putin’s regime, and reach millions of people inside and outside Russia.
Here’s what we’ve accomplished this month:
launched a major campaign against Putin’s ruling party, United Russia
released three new investigations
strengthened international pressure on Putin and his allies
conducted a nationwide survey showing Russians’ growing fatigue with the war
helped Russians avoid forced military service and win cases at the European Court of Human Rights
Campaign against Putin’s United Russia
Next year, Russia will hold parliamentary “elections.” Of course, they won’t be real—Putin’s regime controls every aspect of the process. But election periods are one of the few times when millions of people inside Russia start thinking about politics again.
That’s why we’ve launched a campaign to expose United Russia—the party of war, corruption, and poverty. Our goal is to show that no one genuinely supports it and that Putin’s so-called “national unity” is a myth.
Local initiatives across Russia—from Udmurtia to Voronezh—have already joined the campaign. Together we will show that there is no real support for Putin or his party.
Investigating the murder of Alexei Navalny
In September, Yulia Navalnaya released new details about the final days of her husband, Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned and killed in a Russian prison in February 2024.
We have testimony from prison staff and confirmation from two independent European laboratories: Alexei was poisoned. Yulia is demanding that the labs publish their findings—the world deserves to know the full truth.
Exposing corruption and propaganda
Igor Krasnov—Putin’s loyal prosecutor turned Supreme Court chairman
Krasnov was responsible for political repression, the destruction of independent media, and the prosecution of Alexei Navalny’s lawyers. Our new investigation reveals that his family acquired luxury real estate worth 1.5 billion—including an $8 million apartment near the Kremlin registered in the name of his two-year-old son.
Vladimir Medinsky and Anatoly Torkunov—rewriting history for Putin
Vladimir Medinsky, best known internationally as the Kremlin’s chief negotiator during peace talks with Ukraine, has long been one of Putin’s key propagandists. Together with Anatoly Torkunov, the rector of the elite MGIMO university that trains Russian diplomats, he wrote a new state-approved high-school history textbook now mandatory for all 11th graders in Russia.
The textbook glorifies Putin, justifies the invasion of Ukraine, and spreads conspiracy theories about the West. At the same time, both Medinsky and Torkunov have personally profited from the system they helped sustain.
What Russians really think about the war
Our sociological team conducted a nationwide poll, showing a clear trend: Russians are tired of the war and want peace.
Only 8% support additional military spending—the lowest level in three years.
75% want immediate peace talks.
31% believe healthcare should be the top government priority.
41% say the authorities are failing in their duties.
75% oppose criminal prosecution for opinions or speech.
Even under propaganda and repression, the demand for peace and normal life is growing.
International work
Europe. When media reports suggested that the EU might ban tourist visas for Russians, ACF sent an official appeal to Brussels. We urged the EU to target oligarchs and regime officials—not ordinary Russians. As a result, the latest sanctions package was adopted without a visa ban.
Australia. Yulia Navalnaya met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Australia introduced new sanctions against Putin’s cronies on the same day—many of them featured in our investigations.
Canada. Together with Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, Yulia Navalnaya appealed to the Canadian government to accept Russian asylum seekers facing deportation from the United States—to save them from imprisonment or torture back home.
Legal work
Since 2017, ACF’s legal team has filed over 1,100 applications to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Russians unlawfully detained or persecuted by the regime. We have won 979 cases and secured almost €4 million in compensation for victims of political repression.
In September alone, our lawyers won six cases related to the 2021 pro-Navalny protests, totaling €24,500 in damages awarded to the victims.
Thank you for standing with us
Each investigation, each court case, each campaign
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