As Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, Alexey Navalny, awaits his hearing on Tuesday’s sentencing, thousands have gathered in icy cities to protest the Kremlin critic’s imprisonment.
As Russian citizens from Moscow came out to icy Siberian cities in a rare protest, Navalny’s allies called on the Biden government to impose sanctions on individuals who “actively participate in the repression and corruption of Putin’s regime.”
In an open letter to President Biden, Vladimir Ashurkov, Navalny’s closest ally and executive director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, names 35 individuals divided into three groups: Putin-aligned oligarchs, human rights violators and those involved in Navalny’s prosecution. .
People attend a protest against the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, January 31, 2021.
(AP)
Sanctioning these individuals – freezing their assets, preventing them from entering the US and doing business with US companies – would entail significant costs for their actions and serve as a deterrent to other members of the political and business world. elite. It would be a powerful way to encourage change, “the letter reads.
Ashurkov, who has worked with Navalny for the past 10 years, says sanctions against these individuals are important for retaliation and deterrence of human rights violators. “The Western countries have encouraged Putin to be more assertive. If the US had been less tolerant of corruption 10, 15 years ago and hindered the flows of dirty money from Russia to the West, Putin would not be brave enough.” to annex Crimea and to sponsor the separatists in Eastern Ukraine, something that has resulted in more than 12,000 deaths in the past six years, ”said Ashurkov.
Navalny survived poisoning from the nerve agent “Novichok” last summer – a charge that the Russian government has denied. He was arrested on January 17 at Moscow airport on arrival from Germany, where he underwent intensive treatment for the poisoning.
He is now facing a sentence of 3 and a half years for “violating the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence in an embezzlement,” the case the European Court of Human Rights ruled as “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable. “.
Calls for Navalny’s release have echoed from the icy streets of Russia as far as European capitals. According to a White House lecture, Navalny’s poisoning – along with Ukraine’s sovereignty and interference in the 2020 US elections – was one of the main topics discussed between Presidents Biden and Putin on a Jan. 26 phone call. However, in a readout released by the Kremlin, Navalny was not mentioned at all.
This week, hundreds of thousands have twice protested Navalny’s imprisonment in Russia, including in Yakutia, where it is -50 ° C (-58 ° F). According to the local control group OVD-Info, riot police detained more than 4,000 protesters during the two protests, which Vladimir Putin compared to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by the Russian authorities, saying, “We renew our call for Russia to release those detained for exercising their human rights, including Aleksey Navalny.”
WHAT HAPPENS IN RUSSIA?
In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, critic of the Kremlin in exile, says Putin is afraid.
“Never have I seen Putin so lost and in self-defense,” Khodorkovsky said via Zoom from London.
The former oil magnate is no stranger to the Russian penitentiary system. He has been in custody for ten years. Khodorkovsky attributes Navalny to an “incredible documentary that greatly damaged Putin’s reputation”. The documentary he refers to? “Putin’s palace. History of the world’s greatest bribes. The film reportedly describes Putin’s private residence on the Black Sea, which includes a casino, cinema, underground hockey rink and hookah lounge in a huge mansion. Putin has denied ownership of the $ 1.35 billion property.
From where Khodorkovsky stands, Putin “doesn’t have much choice” about what to do next. “He cannot allow himself to condone Navalny. Because of his own environment – circles of control – they will think he is weak, they will no longer see a man they used to serve” and that, according to Khodorkovsky, will diminish their loyalty to Putin: “Putin cannot let this happen, that’s why he imprisoned Navalny”.
In the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, Russia ranks 129 out of 180 countries, and according to recent approval ratings by Russia’s influential Levada Center, 47% of Russians generally disapprove of the actions of the Russian government, the other 2% have no answer and 51% approve of them.
Khodorkovsky recalls another poll form last March, when the Russian State Duma passed a law on constitutional changes, including an amendment to re-establish presidential terms, allowing Vladimir Putin to participate in the presidential election after the end of his current term. When asked whether or not they wanted to see Vladimir Putin as the president of Russia after the end of his current term of office in 2024, 40% of Russians said they ‘wouldn’t’ and another 14% said it was’ difficult was to say “.
After 20 years as the leader of Russia and falling ratings, Khodorkovsky said, Putin fears people taking to the streets because “he doesn’t know how to deal with such a scenario.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Aleksey Navalny’s hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Khodorkovsky believes that liberating Navalny will further weaken Putin’s leadership among the control groups he relies on.
“On the other hand, he fears Western sanctions, including individual sanctions, because sanctions target his environment, individuals and families whose lives and well-being in the West depend on their ties to Putin,” Khodorkovsky supports the punishment of the corrupt. individuals. , “thieves”, not the Russian economy.
Khodorkovsky sees no political will for sanctions in Europe, but hopes that the Biden government will show “smart political behavior” and show leadership towards Europe and the Euro-Atlantic world. “It happened under President Reagan, it can happen now,” he asks before ending the interview.