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Exclusive: Russian opposition leader likely to infuriate Kremlin with letter dictated from behind bars
One year since Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, yet Western countries have still failed to sanction Putin’s inner circle.
What will it take?
Political prisoner, Vitold Ashurak, 50 yrs old, died in a Belarusian prison yesterday. As we speak Raman Protasevich is being tortured/faces death penalty after being kidnapped via hijacking of a plane. The world better make Lukashenko and his boss, Putin, pay for this severely.
Researcher Olga Lautman on Twitter, describing the gross human rights abuses happening under Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. The link to President Putin cannot be ignored, since it is Russian money that props up Lukashenko’s state-sponsored terror against Belarusian citizens.
Crowds in Tverskaya Square at 14:20, protesting against the imprisonment of Navalny. This is a total PR disaster for President Putin. I hope he and his friends are panicking.
Sky News reporting on the protest in Moscow against the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny.
LEST WE FORGET.
This is Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian tax lawyer from Firestone Duncan who exposed mass tax fraud by members of Russia’s Interior Ministry. When he reported his findings, Magnitsky himself was arrested and incarcerated in Russia’s abusive Matrosskaya Tishina prison.
Over the next several months, Magnitsky would face numerous rounds of torture as prison guards demanded that he retract his testimony and instead blame his client for the theft.
Courageously, Magnitsky refused to lie, maintaining to the last that members of Russia’s Interior Ministry and Tax Crimes Investigation team had masterminded the tax fraud against his client, Hermitage Capital.
Magnitsky suffered agonising pains in prison and was continually denied medical care. Nor was he ever allowed to see his family again.
In November 2009, prison guards locked Magnitsky in a cell and beat him to death for over an hour. To this day, not a single murderer has faced punishment in Russia. Disgustingly, the government officials involved in the theft have since been promoted, and the tax officials who authorised a fraudulent tax refund were absolved using the excuse that the fraudsters had “tricked” them.
Magnitsky’s client, American-British financier Bill Browder made justice for Magnitsky his life’s work. He lobbied the American government under former President Obama to pass the Magnitsky Act. This law would sanction those responsible for murdering Sergei Magnitsky thorugh visa denials and asset freezes.
Since then, Browder has expanded the scope of this Act to include human rights abusers from several other nations. Currently, Browder has spoken out against China’s ongoing genocide of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang.
Browder has faced numerous obstacles to his path for justice. Banned from reentering Russia in 2005 under the guise of “national security”, Browder has good reason to believe that he, too, may be killed should he run into members of Russia’s “security” service and takes various steps to secure himself. Yet he continues to speak out against Putin’s corruption and abuse.
Russian lawyer and political dissident Alexei Navalny, who has released numerous damaging investigations into Kremlin corruption, has recommended applying the Magnitsky Act against key enablers of Putin’s corruption. For Navalny, until the West sanctions those with the money, Putin will continue his corruption.
While convalescing in Germany after being poisoned with Novichok, Navalny proposed a list of 35 people to face Magnitsky Sanctions. Allies like Leonid Volkov publicised this list in the hopes that Western nations, convinced that the FSB targeted Navalny with a chemical agent, would retaliate against the Kremlin.
Has the West done so? Despite copious evidence, including that from Western intelligence sources, the international community has thus far failed to act on Navalny’s recommendations.
Instead, some politicians prefer to have summits with Putin, others prefer to condemn the Russian President on Twitter, and some even blame the West, casting Putin as a victim who needs “understanding”.
No amount of condemnation on social media, nor deep concerns, nor summits will save the lives of Russians fighting against corruption and persecution. The Magnitsky Act overshadows all other measures, because it attacks the one thing Putin cares about most: money.
Without this money, Putin cannot afford to protect himself from the consequences of his criminal behaviour, nor can he protect the henchmen who help him steal from the national coffers and abuse ordinary citizens. Furthermore, anyone who does steal from Russian taxpayers cannot travel freely abroad to enjoy the proceeds of their crime.
The difference between Western politicians and people like Sergei Magnitsky is striking. Powerful politicians have, time and time again, spoken of “reset”, “engagement”, and “discussion” with a known thief and murderer. Meanwhile, Magnitsky, despite unimaginable torture orchestrated by the Russian government, utterly refused to betray the law and his ethics by lying on behalf of criminals. For this, he paid the ultimate price.
It is time for Western politicians to stop caring about Putin’s reactions and feelings, and start caring about the millions of Russians suffering under his illegitimate 21 year rule. Apply Magnitsky Sanctions now to all the names Navalny suggested. Support Russians on the streets today. Defend Navalny now, not if the worst happens. Don’t let Sergei Magnitsky’s powerful sacrifice be in vain.
FURTHER READING
BROWDER, Bill: Red Notice (A full account of how Putin and his henchmen persecuted, tortured, and murdered Sergei Magnitsky; how Browder fought for justice on Magnitsky’s behalf)
BROWDER, Bill: Sergei Magnitsky (More information about Magnitsky from Browder’s website)
RUSSIAN UNTOUCHABLES: A series of short documentaries on the tax fraud Magnitsky uncovered, with shocking details about the lawyer’s detainment, incarceration, torture, and eventually murder.
Up to 150 000 Belarussians march on Lukashenko’s residency to demand that he be imprisoned.
Multiple sources confirm that Lukashenko’s recent electoral victory was the result of fraud. For weeks now, vast swathes of the nation have united in opposition to this dictator.
Most notably, the Russian state has given its stamp of approval to Lukashenko’s falsified election victory. Angry Belarussians call on Alexei Navalny as their example of resistance against electoral fraud and a lack of democratic freedom.
Recently, I went into a live stream on a Russian YouTube channel, and I saw one comment: Alexei Live, Belarus Live. The connections are clear.
Just like in Russia, Belarussian citizens are fed up of dictatorship, censorship, political suppression, and electoral fraud. Lukashenko today, Putin tomorrow.
This blog is in full support of Belarussians and Russians who demand simple rights: liberty, justice, peace, and decency.
Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponent has been on a hunger strike to demand proper medical treatment
Please think of Daria Navalnaya and her brother, Zahar Navalny, being forced to watch Putin torture their father to death in broad daylight.
Wickedness such as this is designed to traumatise and terrorise Russians, so that they remain compliant to the Kremlin and see resistance as futile.
Currently, around 450 000 Russians have pledged to protest in defence of Navalny’s life. I hope this rises above the required 500 000, because as doctors warned yesterday, Navalny could die at any minute.
Putin critic to stop refusing food after 24 days following examination by non-prison doctors
Thank God!
The work has not finished, however. Navalny needs medical attention for spinal hernias, resulting in numbness around his body.
Furthermore, the insane sentence against him must be fully revoked.
Finally, politicians in Western nations should finally sanction all 35 accomplices that Navalny named months ago, so as to cut off Putin’s money laundering operations in foreign economies.
