Tag: Alexei Navalny

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Russia Hit By 500 New Sanctions From US Over Navalny, Ukraine

Russia appears far from being deterred by the sanctions. Its economy grew by 3 per cent in 2023, more than the US economy, reports Yashwant Raj

The US has hit Russia with 500 new sanctions on Friday over the death of jailed Opposition leader Aleksey Navalny and the ongoing war against Ukraine, with the goal of further constricting its energy earnings that fuel and sustain the war effort.

The US has also announced 100 sanctions against entities that are providing “backdoor support” to the Russian war machine, including those in China, the UAE and Liechtenstein.

“These sanctions will target individuals connected to Navalny’s imprisonment as well as Russia’s financial sector, defence industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents,” US President Joe Biden said, announcing new curbs.

“They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home.”

The 47-year-old Navalny died in a Russian prison on February 16. The US has sanctioned more than 2,000 entities in Russia since President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine to deter him by squeezing his energy earnings and sources of material for the war industry.

Vladimir Putin flew on a modernised Tu-160M strategic missile-carrying bomber
(Kremlin Photo)

But Russia appears far from being deterred. Its economy grew by 3 per cent in 2023, more than the US economy. And it continues to wage the war, which is now going in their advantage specially with Ukraine’s depleting arsenal desperately in need of replenishment. A legislation providing additional security funding for Ukraine is caught in a political fight between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, home of the US congress.

Pressing Republicans, who control the House of Representatives to clear the bill, Biden said: “History is watching. The failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will not be forgotten. Now is the time for us to stand strong with Ukraine and stand united with our allies and partners. Now is the time to prove that the US stands up for freedom and bows down to no one.”

These additional sanctions come amidst further deterioration in relations between the world’s largest nuclear powers and sharp language exchanged by the two sides.

Biden called Putin a “crazy SOB’ at a fundraiser for his re-election campaign earlier this week. And Putin reacted by sarcastically calling Biden his preferred president of the US.

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‘Make No Mistake, Putin is Responsible’: Biden on Navalny’s Death

 Russia’s most significant opposition leader for the past decade, Alexei Navalny, has died in prison inside the Arctic Circle

US President Joe Biden said that he is “outraged” by the reported death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for Navalny’s death.

In his remarks on Navalny’s death, Biden said, “Reports of his death if they’re true and I have no reasons to believe that they’re not – Russian authorities are going to tell their own story but make no mistake Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. Putin is responsible. What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality no one should be fooled not in Russia not at home not anywhere in the world.

Outspoken Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, fell unconscious and died on Friday according to state media reports.

“Putin does not only target citizens of other countries as we’ve seen what’s going on in Ukraine right now he also inflicts terrible crimes on his people and as people across Russia and around the world are mourning Navalny today because he was so many things that Putin was not,” he added.

He said Navalny “bravely stood up to the corruption the violence and all the bad things that the Putin government was doing.”

Biden stated that Navalny could have lived safely in exile. However, he returned to Russia knowing that he would likely be imprisoned or even killed if he continued to work. Putin lauded Navalny for being the powerful voice for the truth even in prison.

Biden said that like millions of people around the world, “I’m literally both not surprised and outraged by the reported death of Alexei Navalny. He bravely stood up to the corruption the violence and all the bad things that the Putin government was doing. In response, Putin had him poisoned, he had him arrested. He had him prosecuted for fabricated crimes. He sentenced him to prison he was held in isolation. Even all that didn’t stop him from calling out Putin’s lies.”

The US President said that Navalny was a powerful voice for the truth even in prison and did not fear returning to Russia.

“Even in prison, he was a powerful voice for the truth which is kind of amazing when you think about it and he could have lived safely in exile after the assassination attempt on him in 2020

which nearly killed him I might add and but he was traveling outside the country at the time. Instead, he returned to Russia knowing he’d likely be imprisoned or even killed if he continued his work but he did it anyway because he believed so deeply in his country, in Russia,” he added.

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny

Calling him “brave, principled and dedicated to building a Russia where the rule of law existed and where it applied to everybody,” Biden said Navalny believed in Russia, a cause worth fighting for. In his remarks, he offered condolences to Navalny’s family.

Biden called for providing funding for Ukraine so that it can defend itself “against Putin’s vicious onslaughts and war crimes.” He stressed the need to reject the statements made by former US President Donald Trump that he said invited Russia to invade NATO allies if they were not paying.

He said, “Now as I’ve said before and I mean this in a literal sense history is watching the House of Representatives the failure to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten it’s going to go down on the pages of history.”

“It is, it’s consequential and the clock is ticking and this has to happen. We have to help now you know we have to realize what we’re dealing with with Putin all of us should reject the dangerous statements made by the previous president that invited Russia to invade our NATO allies if they weren’t paying,” Biden added.

Asked whether Navalny was assassinated, Biden said, “We don’t know exactly what happened, but there’s no doubt that the death of Navalny was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison, Al Jazeera reported on Friday, citing state media. The death of the jailed Russian opposition leader, 47, has been reported by state media which further cited the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region where he had been serving his sentence.

Al Jazeera cited a statement put out by state media quoting the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region which said that Navalny “felt bad” after a walk and lost consciousness “almost immediately.” (ANI)

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Kremlin Denies Knowledge About ‘Missing’ Putin Critic Navalny

Alexei Navalny’s lawyers have not been able to see him since December 6, reports Asian Lite News

The Kremlin has said that it has “no information” about jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who reportedly has been missing from prison since December 6, Al Jazeera reported.

Navalny’s lawyers have not been able to see him since December 6.

The prison authorities moved him from the penal colony, where he was serving his sentence for multiple charges, including extremism, but have not said where he was transferred to.

Prison officials told a court on Friday (local time) that Navalny had left the IK-6 facility in the town of Melekhovo in the Vladimir region, about 230 km (140 miles) east of Moscow, Al Jazeera reported, citing Vyacheslav Gimadi, the head of the legal department at Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.

On being asked if the Kremlin had any information about Navalny, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “No. I repeat again: we do not have the capacity, or right, or desire to track the fates of those prisoners who are serving sentences by order of a court.”

Navalny, who rose to prominence by lampooning President Vladimir Putin’s “elite” and alleging “extensive corruption” was sentenced in August to an additional 19 years in prison on top of the 11 and a half years he was already serving, Al Jazeera reported.

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov

“We don’t know [where he is] for the 10th day,” Navalny’s lawyer posted on X.

The allies of the Putin critic had been preparing for his expected transfer to a “special regime” high-security facility, the harshest grade in Russia’s prison system, before he was moved.

“Where he was taken is not known,” Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, posted on X, saying he was moved on December 11. “Let me remind you that the lawyers have not seen Alexei since December 6.”

Earlier, Navalny’s team had alleged that the jailed Russian leader suffered a serious health incident.

Meanwhile, another Navalny ally, Maria Pevchikh, has urged the United Nations Human Rights Committee to help them locate the jailed leader.

“What is happening with Alexei is, in fact, an enforced disappearance and a flagrant violation of his fundamental rights. Answers must be given,” she said on Thursday.

Several rights groups have also weighed in on Moscow’s criticism. Amnesty International acknowledged “the possibility that he may be in transit to another prison colony.”

“As if attempted poisoning, imprisonment and inhumane conditions of detention were not enough, Alexei Navalny may now have been subjected to an enforced disappearance,” it added.

The dissident was taken from Russia to Germany in 2020 after he was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. Navalny had to be airlifted from the Siberian city of Omsk and arrived comatose at a hospital in Berlin, CNN reported.

Navalny was immediately incarcerated upon his return to Russia in January 2021 on charges of violating the terms of his probation related to a fraud case brought against him in 2013, which he also dismissed as politically motivated.

He has also campaigned from prison against Russia’s war against Ukraine and has even attempted to mobilise public opposition to the war.

According to CNN, Navalny posed one of the most serious threats to Putin’s legitimacy during his rule, which has spanned more than two decades.

When Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in a maximum-security penal colony in August, he said, “the number of years does not matter.” (ANI)

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Biden admin sanctions 4 Russians over Navalny poisoning

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny

The individuals subjected to Washington’s sanctions are Alexey Alexandrov, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, Ivan Osipov, and Vladimir Panyaev….reports Asian Lite News

The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sanctions and visa restrictions on four Russian operatives involved in the 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, CNN reported.

The four operatives sanctioned by Washington are namely; Alexey Alexandrov, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, Ivan Osipov, and Vladimir Panyaev.

They have been sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act “for having acted as agents of or on behalf of a person in a matter relating to extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals seeking to expose illegal activity carried out by officials of the Government of the Russian Federation,” according to the US Treasury Department.

Notably, all four had already been sanctioned under a different authority in August 2021.

The State Department has imposed visa sanctions on the four, blocking them and their immediate family members from entry to the United States.

“Today’s actions are a reminder that there are consequences for violating internationally recognized human rights. The United States will continue to use the authorities at our disposal to promote accountability for such egregious acts,” CNN quoted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as saying.

In August 2020, Navalny collapsed on a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to Moscow after being poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. He was medically evacuated to Berlin and treated in the German capital before returning to Russia in January 2021. He has been incarcerated there since, CNN reported.

According to the US Treasury Department, “Kudryavtsev also reportedly was involved in surveillance of Russian opposition politician and Putin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza,” who was detained in April 2022 and has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison on extremism charges, which the State Department condemned as “an unjust conclusion to an unjust trial.”

Navalny is already serving sentences totalling eleven-and-a-half years in a maximum security facility, where “Russian authorities have repeatedly sent Navalny to solitary confinement, infringed upon his access to counsel, and denied him medical care,” CNN reported citing the State Department. (ANI)

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Russia extends Navalny’s jail term to 19 years

Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most vocal critic, who was found guilty of founding and funding an extremist organisation, will serve his time in a “special regime colony”, which Russian state prosecutors had been calling for.

The prison term of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been extended to 19 years in addition to the nine-year term he was already serving for parole violations, fraud and contempt of court.

The trial was held on Friday in a remote penal colony in the town of Melekhovo, 150 miles east of Moscow, where Navalny has been in since 2021, reports the BBC.

The proceedings were closed to the press and the public.

The Kremlin’s most vocal critic, who was found guilty of founding and funding an extremist organisation, will serve his time in a “special regime colony”, which Russian state prosecutors had been calling for.

Such prisons are normally reserved for dangerous criminals, re-offenders and those with life imprisonment.

There he is likely to face greater isolation, with further restrictions on communications with the outside world.

He could also receive fewer visitors than he is used to, including his family and defence team, and may face longer periods of solitary confinement, the BBC reported.

After the verdict, in a message to supporters posted for him on X (formerly Twitter), Navalny remained defiant.

“You, not me, are being frightened and deprived of the will to resist. Putin must not achieve his goal. Do not lose the will to resist,” he wrote.

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny

“Nineteen years in a special regime colony. The figure doesn’t mean anything. I fully understand that, like many political prisoners my sentence is for life. Life is measured either by my lifespan or that of the regime.”

For over a decade, Navalny sought to expose corruption at the heart of Russian power. His video investigations have received tens of millions of views online.

He also seemed to be the only Russian opposition leader capable of mobilising people in large numbers across Russia to take part in anti-government protests.

But in 2020, he was poisoned in Siberia by what Western laboratories later confirmed to be a nerve agent.

After recovering from the attack, Navalny returned to Russia in 2021 despite warnings that he could face arrest.

He was immediately arrested upon arrival at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport.

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Moscow bans 7 Britons from entering Russia

The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that seven British citizens have been barred from entering Russia in tit-for-tat retaliation regarding Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

“Under far-fetched and absurd pretexts,” the British government in August 2021 announced restrictions against seven Russian nationals due to their alleged “direct responsibility for the poisoning of Navalny,” the ministry said in a statement.

In response to the unfriendly actions of London and on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, Russia has decided to impose sanctions on seven Britons who are closely involved in anti-Russian activities, Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

“We once again call on the British leadership to abandon the confrontational policy towards our country. Any unfriendly step will be met with an adequate proportionate response,” the statement read.

In November, at the 26th Session of the OPCW Conference of the States Parties, a joint statement by 556 nations including UK and US condemned in the “strongest possible terms the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon in the Russian Federation against Mr Alexei Navalny on 20 August 2020.”

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny

“We urge the Russian Federation, on whose territory this attack on a Russian political opposition figure took place, to assist the Conference in this role by disclosing in a comprehensive and transparent manner the circumstances of this chemical weapons attack,” according to the statement.

“We note that the Russian Federation submitted a request for technical assistance from the Technical Secretariat, with reference to Article VIII, paragraph 38(e) of the Convention, but that the Russian Federation has not agreed to the OPCW Technical Secretariat’s standard terms of reference for such assistance to take place,” the statement added.

Navalny, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, was arrested this year and sent to serve a 2-1/2-year jail term for parole violations related to an embezzlement conviction he says was fraudulent.

Navalny was detained on his return to Russia in January from Germany where he was treated for what German authorities concluded was poisoning in Russia with a banned nerve agent. The Kremlin says it has seen no evidence he was poisoned and that his jailing is not political. (with inputs from IANS/ANI)