Category Archives: Alexei Navalny

‘We have ambitious plans’: Anti-Putin forces plan fresh attacks inside Russia

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Leader of cross-border raids from Ukraine says weapons, not words, are needed to overthrow the regime in Moscow

The commander of the Freedom of Russia Legion says his fighters are planning another cross-border raid into Russia and are seeking to capitalise on disarray inside the Kremlin following the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“There will be a further surprise in the next month or so,” Caesar, a spokesperson for the anti-Putin paramilitary group, said in an interview with the Observer in Kyiv. “It will be our third operation. After that there will be a fourth, and fifth. We have ambitious plans. We want to free all our territory.”

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Russia says Navalny’s ‘extremism’ trial must be held in private

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Kremlin critic faces charges that could lead to a substantial extension of his jail time

A Russian court has ordered that the latest trial of Alexei Navalny be held behind closed doors, as the Kremlin critic faces extremism charges that could mean his prison time is extended for decades.

Navalny is being tried at the maximum-security prison where he is jailed: IK-6 penal colony, about 150 miles (250km) east of Moscow.

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Russian woman given suspended sentence for ‘insulting’ note on Putin’s parents’ grave

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Case comes amid Kremlin’s growing crackdown on dissent over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

A Russian court has given a two-year suspended sentence to a St Petersburg woman who left a note on the grave of President Vladimir Putin’s parents saying they had “raised a freak and a killer”.

The court found Irina Tsybaneva, 60, guilty of desecrating burial places motivated by political hatred. Her lawyer said she didn’t plead guilty because she hadn’t desecrated the grave physically or sought publicity for her action.

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Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says he faces life in jail over terror charges

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Allies of opposition leader already serving 11 years say charges may be linked to death of pro-war blogger

The jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he is facing potential life imprisonment on fresh charges of terrorism amid an ongoing campaign to silence the prominent Kremlin critic more than a year into the invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking over video link at a hearing before a separate trial for “extremism”, Navalny, 46, said investigators had told him he would also be tried by a military court for terrorist attacks he had allegedly committed while behind bars.

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Gaunt and ghostly, Georgia’s jailed ex-president nears death in hospital

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Mikheil Saakashvili warned of Putin’s ambitions 15 years ago. Now he tells of torture by a regime that panders to Moscow

Locked up in a Tbilisi hospital, Mikheil Saakashvili is slowly wasting away.

“I am asking to be transferred to Poland, as it is crystal clear that in Georgian hospital I will die,” Georgia’s former president wrote in response to questions from the Observer last week. His answers were scrawled in blue ballpoint pen on sheets of paper, passed to his lawyers.

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Putin opponents and Russian liberals celebrate Navalny’s Oscar success

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Director dedicates award to all political prisoners after film about Russian opposition leader wins best feature documentary

Russian liberals on Monday celebrated the Oscar win of Navalny, a documentary about the poisoning and imprisonment of the “hero” Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The film, which won best feature documentary at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, follows an investigation by Navalny’s team together with the Bellingcat group as they unmask FSB agents who were sent to poison Navalny in 2020. The Kremlin has always denied involvement.

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Alexei Navalny aide says his survival may depend on value to Vladimir Putin

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Leonid Volkov warns Russian opposition leader’s health is at risk from indefinite solitary confinement

Alexei Navalny’s survival may depend on his value to Vladimir Putin as a future bargaining chip, his chief aide said, warning that the opposition leader’s health was at risk after being forced into indefinite solitary confinement.

Leonid Volkov, speaking on a visit to London, added that Navalny had lost access to his family and was being permanently detained in a “8 by 12ft” cell after the isolation decision by Russian authorities last week.

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Russia declares popular rapper and writer ‘foreign agents’

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Oxxxymiron added to an updated list alongside four journalists and Dmitry Glukhovsky, a prominent writer

The Russian justice ministry has declared one of the country’s most popular rappers to be a “foreign agent”, a legal designation that has been used to hound Kremlin critics and journalists.

Oxxxymiron, whose real name is Miron Fyodorov, was added to an updated list of foreign agents alongside four journalists and Dmitry Glukhovsky, a prominent writer.

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Russia’s Alexei Navalny faces extra 15 years in jail over ‘extremism’ claims

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Political foe of Russian president Vladimir Putin was already sentenced to nine-year term earlier this year

The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is facing new criminal accusations that could extend his current prison term by 15 years.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Navalny said an investigator had visited him in prison to declare that the authorities had opened a new investigation against him on charges of “creating an extremist group to fan hatred against officials and oligarchs” and trying to stage unsanctioned rallies.

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Ukraine war is Putin’s death warrant, says wife of jailed politician

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Vladimir Kara-Murza’s wife Evgenia says Russian president will fall over war in Ukraine

Vladimir Kara-Murza’s wife Evgenia thinks he will have been like a “hurricane contained inside a bottle” since he was arrested on 11 April in Moscow and held in pre-trial detention over a speech he had made in Arizona criticising the war in Ukraine.

“He has so much energy, so many ideas, and initiatives, that being contained within the four walls of a prison will be the hardest part for him,” said Evgenia, who has not been allowed to speak to him.

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Greta stands with Sami and Navalny on trial again: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Mexico

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Alexei Navalny faces 15 more years in prison as new trial starts

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Russian opposition leader in fresh trial at penal colony far from support base on charge of embezzlement

Russia could extend Alexei Navalny’s imprisonment for up to a further 15 years in a fresh criminal trial that his supporters warn has been overshadowed by the crisis in Ukraine.

The Russian opposition leader is accused of embezzling donations to his FBK anti-corruption organisation, which has accused Vladimir Putin of owning a £1bn mansion and other top officials enriching themselves through corrupt schemes.

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Desmond Tutu’s funeral and Kazakhstan clashes: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to Hong Kong

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Russian court orders closure of another human rights group

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Memorial Human Rights Centre liquidated a day after its sister group, Memorial, in assault on civil liberties

A Russian court has ordered the closure of the Memorial Human Rights Centre (MHRC), a day after the supreme court revoked the legal status of its sister organisation, Memorial International.

Moscow city court authorised the dissolution of the group – one of Russia’s most venerated human rights institutions – for the “justification of extremism and terrorism” by religious groups including Jehovah’s Witnesses officially considered “extremist” in Russia.

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Court cases threatening human rights group Memorial start in Russia

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Cases under ‘foreign agents’ law mark attack on civil society and attempt to recast Soviet history

Russia may dissolve Memorial, the country’s premier human rights group, in an attack on civil society and symbolic reversal of the freedoms won by dissidents at the fall of the Soviet Union.

A supreme court case, to be heard on Thursday, may mark a watershed in Vladimir Putin’s campaign to recast Soviet history by banning International Memorial, which began meeting in the late 1980s to shed light on atrocities and political repression under Joseph Stalin and other Soviet leaders.

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Apple and Google accused of ‘political censorship’ over Alexei Navalny app

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Navalny’s supporters say companies deleted tactical voting app from stores after pressure from Kremlin

Supporters of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have accused Google and Apple of capitulating to Kremlin pressure after the two tech companies deleted his tactical voting app from their online stores.

Both companies had come under significant pressure from Russian regulators in the days before the courntry’s parliamentary elections to block access to Navalny’s Smart Voting initiative, which tries to channel opposition votes toward the strongest opponents of the ruling party, United Russia.

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Russian minister complains to US about role of ‘digital giants’ in election

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Sergei Ryabkov’s claim of interference in Duma vote believed to be reference to anti-Putin apps on Apple and Google

The Russian foreign ministry has summoned the US ambassador, John Sullivan, to complain about alleged interference by “American digital giants” in Russia’s upcoming parliamentary election.

According to a ministry statement on Friday, the deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, claimed Russia “possesses irrefutable evidence of the violation of Russian legislation by American digital giants in the context of the preparation and conduct of elections to the state Duma”.

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Russian government moves to repress opposition in run-up to elections

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Ruling United Russia party silences critics, cracks down on poll monitors and offers cash to voters as its support slumps

The Russian government has silenced opposition voices, approved cash payouts to potential voters, and made it nearly impossible to monitor the polls as it prepares for parliamentary elections next month that the opposition has warned will be marred by fraud.

United Russia, the ruling party that has supported Vladimir Putin through nearly his entire presidency, is expected to maintain a majority of the seats in the next Duma, despite state polling that shows that just 26% of Russians are ready to vote for the party – its lowest rating since 2008.

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UK imposes sanctions on seven Russians over Navalny poisoning

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FCDO says the individuals, said to be FSB members, will be subject to travel bans and asset freezes

Sanctions have been imposed on seven Russian nationals accused of involvement in the nerve agent poisoning of the key Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the UK government has said.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced that the individuals, said to be members of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), would be subject to travel bans and asset freezes.

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