smear campaign

Amnesty International stripped Alexei Navalny from his status as prisoner of conscience. After the organisation was bombarded with complaints it reviewed his statements, made some 13 years ago and concluded that they amounted to hate speech. Journalist Yevgenia Albats, who has known Navalny since the early 2000s, is stunned that Amnesty let itself being used for a typical smear campaign by Russia.