Category Archives: Alexei Navalny

Alexei Navalny believed he would die in prison, memoir reveals

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In secret journal, Putin’s fiercest critic writes: ‘If your convictions mean something, you must be prepared to stand up for them’

The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny believed he would die in prison, excerpts from his memoir reveal.

Navalny was the most prominent foe of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and relentlessly campaigned against official corruption in Russia. He died in a remote Arctic prison in February while serving a 19-year sentence on several charges, including running an extremist group, which he said were politically motivated.

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Russia’s exiled opposition rocked by claims over hammer attack on Navalny ally

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Accusations that another Kremlin critic ordered attack on Leonid Volkov throws scattered opposition into further disarray

When Leonid Volkov, a longtime associate of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was brutally attacked with a hammer outside his home in Lithuania in March, it initially seemed yet another case of the Kremlin hunting down its enemies abroad.

The assailant smashed open Volkov’s car window and struck him repeatedly with a hammer, breaking his left arm and damaging his left leg. Western officials and opposition figures assumed the attack, which took place a few weeks after Navalny’s mysterious death in prison, had been orchestrated by the Kremlin.

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Putin regime will collapse without warning, says freed gulag dissident

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Vladimir Kara-Murza and his wife, Evgenia, speak of his time in a Siberian jail and why the truth about Russia will come out

The last time I met Evgenia Kara-Murza, it was a grim day in early March. The timing couldn’t have been worse. As we spoke, Alexei Navalny’s coffin was being lowered into the frozen ground in a Moscow cemetery. Meanwhile Evgenia’s husband, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was still incarcerated in a Siberian prison cell almost identical to the one in the Arctic Circle in which Navalny had been found dead, presumed murdered.

The parallels were eerie. Because Vladimir, a journalist turned political activist, was not just also loathed and feared by the Kremlin and imprisoned on spurious charges, he’d also been poisoned – twice – targeted by the same FSB (Federal Security Service) unit that had poisoned Navalny.

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Russian dissidents freed in prisoner swap speak of deal ‘dilemma’

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Activists say they never agreed to leave their homeland and vow to continue fighting for democracy in Russia

Russian dissidents freed as part of a prisoner swap between Moscow and the west have shared their mixed feelings about the deal and vowed to continue their political activity from abroad.

The exchange represented a “difficult dilemma”, said the Russian liberal opposition politician Ilya Yashin at an emotional press conference in Bonn.

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Russian prisoner swap deal was to have included Alexei Navalny

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Negotiations, which began months earlier, originally included release of late opposition leader

At Cologne airport on Thursday evening, a group of associates of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny gathered waiting for a plane to arrive from Ankara. On board were 13 people who, until that morning, had been incarcerated in Russian prisons, including three people who had worked as Navalny’s regional coordinators in various Russian cities and been jailed for “extremism”.

After a swap in Turkey, they were now free, along with the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans, who were heading back home on a separate plane.

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Biden says ‘welcome home’ as Americans land in the US – as it happened

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As part of the deal, according to the Turkish presidency, Belarus has released German citizen Rico Krieger.

Krieger was sentenced to death but granted a pardon this week by the country’s autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko.

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Two Russian journalists arrested over alleged work for Alexei Navalny foundation

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Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin face at least two years’ jail on ‘extremism’ charges, which they deny, amid continuing crackdown on dissent

Two Russian journalists have been arrested on “extremism” charges and ordered by courts there to remain in custody pending investigation and trial on accusations of working for a group founded by the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin both denied the charges for which they will be detained for a minimum of two months before any trials begin. Each faces a minimum of two years in prison and a maximum of six years for alleged “participation in an extremist organisation”, according to Russian courts.

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Belarusian held in Poland suspected of ordering hammer attack on Navalny ally

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Two Polish citizens detained earlier on suspicion of attacking Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Lithuania

A Belarusian national has been detained in Poland on suspicion of ordering the attack on a top Russian opposition leader, Leonid Volkov, on Moscow’s behalf, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has announced.

Volkov, a close aide of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was briefly admitted to hospital last month after he was ambushed and attacked outside his house in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The assailant smashed open Volkov’s car window and repeatedly struck him with a hammer, breaking Volkov’s left arm and damaging his left leg before fleeing the scene.

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Russian police detain journalist who filmed last video of Alexei Navalny alive

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Rights groups say Antonina Favorskaya is accused of links to Alexei Navalny’s ‘extremist organisation’ and is one of six journalists held this month

A journalist who filmed the last video of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny before he died, Antonina Favorskaya, has been detained by authorities.

Favorskaya covered the trials of Navalny for several years and media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday she was one of six journalists across the country held this month.

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Putin claims he agreed to prisoner swap involving Navalny before his death

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Re-elected Russian president makes first public comment on death of opposition leader, which he calls ‘sad event’

Vladimir Putin has claimed he had agreed to a prisoner swap involving Alexei Navalny before the opposition leader’s sudden death in an Arctic prison last month.

Speaking in central Moscow after early results indicated he had won Russia’s presidential election in a landslide, Putin said unnamed people made an offer to release Navalny in a swap deal with the west a few days before he died.

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Lithuania blames Putin for Vilnius hammer attack on Navalny aide

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Baltic country’s state security says assault on Leonid Volkov was probably to stop Russian opposition influencing election

Lithuania has blamed Moscow for the bloody hammer attack on a longtime aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny outside his home in Vilnius.

Leonid Volkov, 43, was in hospital briefly after he was attacked with a hammer by an unknown assailant on Tuesday night in the Lithuanian capital.

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Navalny ally Leonid Volkov vows to continue fight against Putin after hammer attack in Vilnius

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‘We will not give up,’ Volkov says in video after being discharged from hospital following attack in Lithuania that left him covered in blood

Leonid Volkov, a longtime aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has vowed to continue the struggle against Russian President Vladimir Putin after being attacked with a hammer outside his home in Lithuania.

“We will work and we will not give up,” he said in a video clip posted on Telegram early on Wednesday, claiming that the attack that left him with a broken arm was a “characteristic bandit hello” from Putin’s henchmen.

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‘I considered him a decent person’: how Putin’s puppets help to dupe Russia’s voters

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As Russians prepare to give the president another six-year term this week, an ex-rival has gone from protest candidate to grotesque war hawk

Two election cycles ago, in 2012, Sergei Mironov was loudly playing the role of opposition to Russia’s ruling party, wearing the white ribbon of the protest movement in the State Duma and claiming his run against Vladimir Putin was “serious”.

If made president, he said, he would even appoint the now deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny as the head of Russia’s accounts chamber as an anti-corruption measure.

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Yulia Navalnaya asks Russians to join anti-Putin polling station protest

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Alexei Navalny’s widow urges supporters to arrive en masse at midday for presidential election to overwhelm polling stations

The widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has called for people to protest against Vladimir Putin at polling booths in the forthcoming presidential election.

Yulia Navalnaya urged her supporters to protest against Putin by voting en masse at noon local time in the 17 March election, forming large crowds and overwhelming polling stations.

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Alexei Navalny’s mother visits grave a day after Moscow funeral

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Other mourners lay flowers as police maintain presence at cemetery where opposition leader was buried

The mother of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has visited his grave, a day after thousands of Russians risked arrest to pay tribute to the anti-corruption campaigner at his funeral.

Navalny, who was Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic for more than a decade, died last month in a prison colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence for “extremism” charges largely regarded as retribution for his opposition to the Kremlin.

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Alexei Navalny funeral draws thousands to heavily policed Moscow church

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Western diplomats attend as chanting crowd pays tribute to opposition leader who died in Arctic penal colony

• Alexei Navalny funeral – latest updates

• Funeral of Alexei Navalny – in pictures

Defying the Kremlin’s warning of arrests, thousands of mourners have gathered in Moscow to bid farewell to the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, two weeks after Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic died in an Arctic prison.

Crowds of people chanted “Putin is a murderer” and “No to war” as they marched, under heavy police presence, to the Borisovsky cemetery where Navalny, 47, was lowered into the ground on Friday to the strains of Frank Sinatra’s My Way.

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31,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since Russia invaded, Zelenskiy says – as it happened

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Ukraine president makes announcement during news conference in Kyiv

Ukraine expects to receive $11.8 billion in economic support this year from the United States, its prime minister said on Sunday.

Denys Shmyhal said during a televised conference in Kyiv that he was hopeful that US lawmakers would approve long-awaited economic and military aid.

In the Donetsk direction, units of the Southern grouping of troops improved the situation along the front line and defeated formations of the 22nd, 28th and 92nd mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Klishchiivka, Dyleyevka and Kurdiumivka.

In the Avdiivka direction, units of the Centre group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions, and also defeated manpower and equipment of the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 107th Air Defence Brigade.

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Alexei Navalny’s body given to mother by Russian authorities

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Remains handed to Lyudmila Navalnaya nine days after Putin critic’s death in Arctic prison, say supporters

The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mother nine days after he died in an Arctic prison, his spokesperson announced on Saturday.

In a post on X, Kira Yarmysh thanked “all those who had demanded” the return of his body, but added that she did not know if the authorities would allow a public funeral to be held.

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Navalny’s body released to his mother, says spokesperson

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Spokesperson for the Russian opposition politician, who died in prison last week, said funeral arrangements are still to be determined

King Charles III praises the “determination and strength” of the Ukrainian people in a message marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion. The monarch said he was “greatly encouraged” by the UK’s efforts to support Ukraine and commended their “true valour”. He has said:

The determination and strength of the Ukrainian people continues to inspire, as the unprovoked attack on their land, their lives and livelihoods enters a third, tragic, year.

Despite the tremendous hardship and pain inflicted upon them, Ukrainians continue to show the heroism with which the world associates them so closely.

Right now, it looks as though Russia will not take part in a first round of the conference.

We’re in the process of starting off with a very broad alliance consisting of the BRICS countries, countries from the Arab world, as well as from the global south.

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US to impose sanctions on 500 Russia-linked targets to mark Ukraine war anniversary

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Military industrial complex and companies aiding Moscow in third countries will be targeted, treasury says

The US will impose sanctions on more than 500 targets on Friday in action marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, deputy US treasury secretary Wally Adeyemo has said.

The action, taken in partnership with other countries, will target Russia’s military industrial complex and companies in third countries that facilitate Russia’s access to goods it wants, Adeyemo told Reuters news agency, as Washington seeks to hold Russia to account over the war and the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

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