generalspeaking

Kremlin Response to Anti-Corruption Irritants

"Alexei was forcibly detained and taken away. He did not resist. Lawyers are still at the FBK, and there's a search underway." 
"[Police timed the raid to coincide with the filming of an episode of Navalny's YouTube show 'Navalny Live' so that] there can be no show."
"[Last week's episode — which covered a shooting outside the FSB building and Putin’s press conference — garnered nearly 1.5 million views],  a record number." 
"They didn’t like that success. If they search our offices they can seize our technical equipment, so there can be no show."
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman

Lawyer-turned-political campaigner has been among the most prominent figures of Russia's opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Navalny came to prominence in 2008, when his blog exposing malpractice in Russian politics and among the country's major state-owned companies came to public attention. Revelations published on his blog even led to resignations, a rarity in Russian politics.

The driving force behind major anti-government protests thoughtfully livestreamed a video from his office while Russian law enforcement officers used an electric saw on Thursday morning to cut through the front door of his office. One wag described it as New Year's fireworks. The foundation's employees were ushered into a room by several masked men, telling them "Put your face to the wall! Stay where you are!" The room was nicely decorated with a Christmas tree and a disco ball. This was all recorded until the officers disabled the CCTV cameras.

Not by any means the first raid on Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation in Moscow. It followed hard on one of his allies being detained and shipped off to a remote Arctic base for military service. To some in Navalny's movement it represented a kidnapping. The Kremlin appears to have initiated an unusually vigorous crackdown on its most effective, vociferous critics whose growing popularity and support is somewhat concerning to them.

According to Mr. Navalny and his spokesperson, the raid was precisely timed for a purpose; the disruption of his weekly YouTube presentation, set to be streamed live that evening. "They clearly chose this day because I have a show tonight", he tweeted. His show the week before had over 1.4 million views on YouTube, evidence of just how provocatively popular it is. And how much of a potential threat it poses to the Kremlin.

Each time one of these raids occurs equipment, including cameras for streaming YouTube shows are seized; the effort's obvious purpose revealed. State-ordered theft, in other words. The foundation's bank account, where donations are collected to pay for operating expenses, was blocked. An employee of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, tweeted to caption the video of the sparks flying when the electric saw sliced through the office door: "New Year's Eve fireworks".

Navalny was ordered in 2017 by a court ruling to remove a YouTube video of his investigation into the secret wealth of Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, a video that had gone viral. A wave of nation-wide protests was triggered by the 50-minute film in the spring of 2017 after having been viewed over 32 million times. Obviously the Kremlin was not impressed.

Police broke into the flat of Ruslan Shaveddinov, 23, a colleague and supporter of Mr. Navalny. He was taken in for questioning, then sent to the Arctic to serve at a secret military base even while he had appealed against his military conscription. So there was the answer to his appeal. His voice as an ally of Mr. Navalny will not be heard for a while, not as long as he remains on the remote archipelago known as Novaya Zemlya. ,

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaking to the media as police stood guard at the Foundation for Fighting Corruption office in Moscow. (AP)

Labels: Alexei Navalny, Crackdowns, Critics, Government, Opponents, Russia, Security, Vladimir Putin

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, December 28, 2019