Joe Biden has condemned Vladimir Putin, saying he thinks the Russian leader is a killer and that he told him he did not have a soul. Biden’s remarks were made on ABC News in an interview with George Stephanopoulos. The interview coincided with the release of a declassified US intelligence report that bolstered allegations Putin was behind Moscow’s interference in the 2020 election. When pressed on the allegations against Russia, Biden said Putin ‘will pay a price’ for the attempts to swing the vote in Donald Trump’s favor
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Alexei Navalny moved to ‘concentration camp’ known for strict control
Kremlin critic reveals on Instagram he has arrived in penal colony north-east of Moscow and has a ‘freshly shaven head’
The Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is being held in a prison camp in the Vladimir region of Russia north-east of Moscow known for its strict control of inmates, a message posted on the opposition politician’s Instagram account confirmed on Monday.
Navalny’s precise location had been unknown after his legal team said last week that he had been moved from the nearby Kolchugino jail and that they had not been told where he was being taken.
Continue reading...Russia detains scores of opposition figures at Moscow meeting
More than 150 people held as police accuse them of links to an ‘undesirable organisation’
Russian police detained about 150 people at a meeting of independent and opposition politicians in Moscow on Saturday, accusing them of links to an “undesirable organisation”, a monitoring group and a TV station said.
The detentions come amid a crackdown on anti-Kremlin sentiment, following the arrest and imprisonment of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who returned to Russia in January after recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in Siberia.
Continue reading...Russia accidentally shuts down state websites in Twitter slowdown
Censor says move is punishment for failure to remove ‘banned’ content relating to Navalny protests
Russia took action on Tuesday to slow down the speed of Twitter in a move that also appeared to have accidentally shut down the Kremlin’s own website, as well as other government agency sites.
The state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said it was retaliating for Twitter’s alleged failure to remove banned content. It threatened a total block if the US platform did not comply with its deletion demands.
Continue reading...Eliot Higgins: ‘People accuse me of working for the CIA’
The founder of the online investigative collective Bellingcat talks about working with Alexei Navalny, open source reporting and the trouble with ‘cyber-miserablism’
Eliot Higgins launched Bellingcat in summer 2014, days after the Russian military shot down Malaysian Airlines MH17 over eastern Ukraine. The online outfit has broken a series of international scoops. In 2018 it discovered the identities of the two undercover assassins who poisoned Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Last year Bellingcat revealed extraordinary details of the plot by Russia’s FSB spy agency to poison the opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Higgins’s first book tells the story of how open source investigation has redefined reporting in the 21st century. He argues that the internet can still be a force for good, despite bad actors, complacent technology firms and an explosion in alternative “facts”. Higgins lives in Leicester with his wife, daughter and son.
Continue reading...Navalny calls for a ‘happy’ Russia after losing appeal against prison sentence – video report
The opposition leader Alexei Navalny has appealed to Russians after a Moscow court on Saturday rejected his appeal against his prison sentence, despite the European court of human rights' order to free the Kremlin’s most prominent foe. The judge slightly reduced his sentence to just over two and a half years in prison, ruling that the month and a half Navalny spent under house arrest in early 2015 would be deducted from his sentence
Continue reading...Alexei Navalny loses appeal against Russian prison camp sentence
Opposition figure appeals to Russians from court, saying ‘to live is to risk it all’
A Moscow court has rejected an appeal from Alexei Navalny that virtually guarantees the Russian opposition figure will be sent to a prison camp for two and a half years.
In a widely expected ruling, the judge upheld a decision to imprison Navalny by reversing a parole handed down in 2014 for embezzlement in a case Navalny said was politically motivated.
Continue reading...ECHR tells Russia to free Alexei Navalny on safety grounds
Russia says it will ignore ruling, which it calls a ‘blatant and gross interference’ in its affairs
The European court of human rights has told Russia to free Alexei Navalny, prompting a new standoff between Europe and Moscow over the fate of Vladimir Putin’s staunchest critic.
Russia has said it will ignore the ruling despite a requirement to comply as a member of the Council of Europe, calling the court’s decision “blatant and gross interference in the judicial affairs of a sovereign state”.
Continue reading...Women form human chains in Russia in support of Navalny’s wife
About 300 women gathered in Moscow holding a white ribbon in -13C temperatures
Several hundred women formed human chains in Moscow and St Petersburg on Sunday, using Valentine’s Day to express support for the wife of the jailed opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, and other political prisoners.
About 300 women gathered on Arbat Street in Moscow’s city centre holding a long white ribbon in temperatures of -13C (8F).
Continue reading...Alexei Navalny back in court on charges of slandering war veteran
Opposition leader accuses state of orchestrating case to damage his image among Russians
Alexei Navalny, the leading opposition figure whose jailing this month sparked protests across Russia, has been back in court to face charges of slandering a war veteran in a separate case.
Navalny denies the charges and has accused the state of orchestrating the case to damage his image among the Russian public.
Continue reading...Face off: the extraordinary power struggle between Vladimir Putin and Alexei Navalny
He’s been poisoned and jailed... but not silenced. Now Navalny poses the greatest threat to the president’s 21-year rule
Alexei Navalny was in defiant mood last Tuesday, as he waited for his inevitable sentence. He made a heart gesture for his wife, Yulia, who was sitting at the back of Moscow’s city courtroom. Navalny smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t be sad! Everything is going to be all right,” he yelled at her. She waved back. Meanwhile, a state prosecutor droned on.
Last week’s sham trial was the latest episode in an epic stand-off between two men for a nation’s future. One is the man in the dock, Russia’s foremost opposition leader, and now a global figure, likened by some to Nelson Mandela. The other is the country’s president of two decades, a former KGB colonel who appears determined to stay in power and to smash a popular revolt against him.
Continue reading...Angela Merkel: Russia’s expulsion of diplomats over Navalny protests ‘unjustified’
German chancellor condemns expulsion of European diplomats as Alexei Navalny appears in court again
Angela Merkel has condemned as “unjustified” Russia’s expulsion of European diplomats for participating in unauthorised demonstrations in support of the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
“We consider these expulsions to be unjustified. We believe it is yet another aspect that can be observed right now of Russia being quite far from the rule of law,” the German chancellor said on Friday at an online press conference with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron.
Continue reading...Kremlin tries to downplay Navalny’s jailing as thousands arrested
1,438 more reportedly arrested amid brutal police crackdown following opposition leader’s imprisonment
The Kremlin has attempted to play down the jailing of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, saying that his 32-month imprisonment will have not have “significant influence” on Russian politics or lead to a mass protest movement similar to the one in neighbouring Belarus.
Meanwhile, protesters detained at recent rallies in support of Navalny have complained of inhumane conditions as police hold them in overcrowded jails or on buses in subzero temperatures days after their arrest.
Continue reading...Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny jailed for two years and eight months
Court locks up Putin’s foe despite threat of protests and international condemnation
A Moscow court has sentenced Alexei Navalny to two years and eight months in a prison colony in a landmark decision for Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on the country’s leading opposition figure.
Navalny, who has accused the Russian president and his allies of stealing billions, was jailed for violating parole from a 2014 sentence for embezzlement in a case he has said was politically motivated.
Continue reading...Navalny prosecutors seek three-and-a-half-year jail term
Putin spokesman says Moscow will ignore US pleas for opposition leader to be freed in wake of protests
Russian state prosecutors are poised to jail the opposition leader Alexei Navalny for three-and-a-half years, with the Kremlin shrugging off US complaints about his case on Monday ahead of a crucial court hearing on Tuesday.
Navalny – who was jailed after flying back to Moscow last month – faces the prospect of a lengthy spell behind bars. Vladimir Putin’s press spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow would ignore statements from the Biden administration, following Sunday’s mass pro-Navalny protests.
Continue reading...Russian police arrest protesters demanding Navalny’s release – video
More than 4,000 people, including Alexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, were detained at rallies across Russia as supporters of the Kremlin critic took to the streets to protest against his imprisonment. Security measures, riot police and national guards troops shut down metro stations in Moscow and blocked off streets to prevent a repeat of last week’s record protests, some of the largest since 2012
Alexei Navalny protests: Moscow in lockdown as police detain thousands
Riot police and national guard troops close central metro stations and block off streets
Police have paralysed the centres of Russia’s largest cities, including Moscow, as the Kremlin sought to beat back rallies in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the country’s most significant protests in a decade.
Supporters of the Kremlin critic took to the streets to protest against his jailing, despite the biting cold and threat of arrest. At least 4,700 people, including Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, were detained as the rallies across the country entered a second week.
Continue reading...Putin’s former judo partner says he owns palace linked to Russian leader
Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny alleges that the mansion belongs the Russian president
The Russian businessman Arkady Rotenberg said on Saturday he owns a palace in southern Russia which jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has linked to Vladimir Putin.
Navalny and his anti-corruption foundation have published a video in which they allege the opulent mansion belongs to the Russian president. The video has been viewed more than 103m times.
Continue reading...No-fly zone over Putin-linked palace is due to Nato spies, says FSB
Alexei Navalny’s investigation into £1bn seaside mansion has sparked protests across Russia
Russia’s FSB security agency has confirmed it enforced a no-fly zone over the £1bn seaside palace that Vladimir Putin has assured the public he does not own. It said the restrictions were imposed last summer to protect the Black Sea coast from Nato spies. Coincidentally, that stretch of coastline also hid an opulent chateau of murky provenance boasting its own casino, skating rink and vineyard.
The Kremlin has been scrambling to explain away an investigation by Alexei Navalny into the 17,691 sq metre seaside mansion that was allegedly funded by a number of Putin’s friends and guarded by the government agencies that also protect Putin and his family. The investigation was released after Navalny, an opposition leader, was jailed and threatened with years in prison on charges he claims are political. the video has been viewed more than 95m times on YouTube.
Continue reading...Biden presses Putin on election interference and Navalny arrest in first call
- US and Russia agree to extend arms control treaty
- Biden raised concerns over several issues
The US and Russia have agreed to extend an arms control treaty limiting their deployed nuclear warheads after Joe Biden’s first phone call as president with Vladimir Putin.
At the same time, Biden took a firm position on Russian actions that Donald Trump largely ignored, raising concerns about the poisoning and arrest of the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, warning Putin that the US supported Ukraine against Russian “aggression”, complaining about Russian interference in last year’s US presidential election, and the “Solar Winds” cyber attack on US government agencies last year.
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