Galina stands up for free speech in Russia: ‘Not everyone is a slave to the propaganda machine’ | Abroad

Until seven years ago, Galina Arapova trained Russian judges and taught them the international standard of independent justice. Those same judges are now condemning hundreds of journalists, politicians and activists for spreading ‘fake news’. Arapova, lawyer and director of the Russian Mass Media Defense Center (MMDC), and her team provide legal assistance to some of these ‘enemies of the state’. “The chance that we will win a case in our own country is zero with the current legislation, but doing nothing is not an option. Then we give Kremlin and therefore Putin carte blanche.”