Defanging Putin
"Putin really cares very much about money. So our short answer is to sanction his close friends, his oligarchs, the holders of his assets.""The idea is to build leverage against Putin and his friends, because every time Europe or the United States tries to build bridges, to compromise, to build a dialogue, unfortunately Putin, in his psychology considers it to be just a sign of weakness.""[Sanctions] would allow veteran leaders to talk to Putin from a much stronger position than they talk now, because money really matters a lot for him. That's our idea. Appeasement politics, unfortunately, has failed.""Let me suggest that the key part of the story is the U.K. here. If you can kind of push and influence the Ul.K. informally, it's the most essential because 80 percent of those assets in question are being stashed in London."Leonid Volkov, Top aide to imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny
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Speaking from Lithuania by video link to the members of Canadian Parliament on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee about Vladimir Putin's staunchest critic Alexei Navalny, and the trials and tribulations he has suffered, the top aide to the imprisoned dissident informed the best method of helping Navalny is through sanctions on oligarch allies of the Russian president. That those loyal to him would be placed under sanction by the West, he maintained, would represent a productive move certain to antagonize Mr. Putin while affecting his wealth and the assets of his friends.
Having been poisoned to near death, saved only by the intervention of Germany, his hospitalization and treatment there, where the nerve-agent poison used to attempt his murder was identified as a military chemical developed and in the hands of the Russian military, Mr. Navalny has since been imprisoned as punishment to his corruption focus on the Kremlin and the country's president. Allies of Mr. Navalny are, in addition, under constant threat of prosecution by Russian authorities.
The opposition movement is on the cusp of being declared illegal by a top Russian court. Asked by one of the committee Members of Parliament what Canada could undertake to assist Mr. Navalny, Mr. Volkov made his advisory with a focus on the ruble. Canada had joined the United States and the European Union in sanctioning nine senior officials in Russia over Navalny's treatment in March. Russia's top prosecutor was among them, as well as the head of Russia's prison system and the FSB security agency head.
No businessmen were targeted by the sanctions who are Putin allies. Mr. Volker pointed out that sanctioning such oligarchs would represent the best way to exert pressure while acknowledging the impossibility of trying to cut Mr. Putin's source of funds off. "I understand how complicated these processes are, how many legal complications", Mr. Volkov said while emphasizing that Canada should place its focus on persuading the U.K. to join in with more sanctions.
This was the second occasion when the House Foreign Affairs Committee spoke with Mr. Volkov. Their initial attempt on April 22had been foiled by Russian pranksters evidently skilled in the art of targeting politicians from Western democracies. Mr. Navalny has now been imprisoned for 108 days, in the process of recovering from a self-imposed hunger strike to draw attention to the fact that he requires medical attention, denied him in prison.
"The requirement of his hunger strike was to get doctors of his choosing, trusted doctors, to mind him", explained Mr. Volkov. Once a compromise was reached, with Mr. Navalny receiving improved medical treatment, he abandoned his hunger strike. "He's recovering from the hunger strike, but it takes time. The hunger strike lasted for 24 days, you need pretty much the same time for a safe recovery", Mr. Volker pointed out.
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| This file photo provided by Leonid Volkov and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, right, are seen in Germany in a Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, handout photo published to social media. The chief of staff to the imprisoned Russian president critic Alexei Navalny is calling on Ottawa to impose new sanctions on who he descripted as “Vladimir Putin’s oligarchs.” THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-HO, Leonid Volkov |
"There is a generational change. In the federal level polls, Putin is still doing very good.""But in polling for voters under 30, Navalny is doing beter than Putin, even despite all the force of the propaganda machine.""So the clock is ticking in our favour.It's a slow, historicl process, but it's inevitable."Leonid Volkov
Labels: Alexei Navalny, Canadian Parliamentary Committee, Leonid Volkov, Oligarch Sanctions, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, May 09, 2021
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