San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
RUSSIA WARNS AGAINST RALLIES
Closures planned to thwart protests calling for Navalny’s release; officials warn of criminal charges
Russian police have issued a strong warning against participating in protests planned for today to call for the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent foe.
The warning comes amid detentions of Navalny associates and opposition journalists and a police plan to restrict movement in the center of Moscow today.
Navalny was arrested on Jan. 17 after flying back to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerveagent poisoning. His detention sparked nationwide protests one week ago in about 100 cities; nearly 4,000 people were reported arrested.
The next demonstration in Moscow is planned for Lubyanka Square. The Federal Security Service, which Navalny claims arranged to have him poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent on behalf of the Kremlin, is headquartered in the square. The Russian government has denied a role in the 44-year-old’s poisoning.
The city police department said much of central Moscow from Red Square to Lubyanka would have pedestrian restrictions and that seven subway stations in the vicinity would be closed today. Restaurants in the area also are to be closed, and the iconic GUM department store on Red Square said it would open only in the evening.
Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk cited the coronavirus pandemic in a warning Saturday against protests. She said participants found in violation of epidemiological regulations could face criminal charges.
The Jan. 23 protests in support of Navalny were the largest and most widespread seen in Russia in many years, and authorities sought to prevent a repeat. Police conducted a series of raids this week at apartments and offices of Navalny’s family, associates and anti-corruption organization.
His brother Oleg, top aide Lyubov Sobol and three other people were put under a twomonth house arrest on Friday, as part of a criminal probe into alleged violations of coronavirus regulations during last weekend’s protests.
Sergei Smirnov, editor of the Mediazona news site that was founded by members of the Pussy Riot punk collective, was detained by police upon leaving his home on Saturday. No charges against him were announced.
Navalny fell into a coma on Aug. 20 while on a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow. He was transferred to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to the Novichok nerve agent.
Russian authorities have refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that he was poisoned.
Navalny was arrested when he returned to Russia on the grounds that his months recovering in Germany violated terms of a suspended sentence he received in a 2014 conviction for fraud and money-laundering, a case that he says was political revenge.
A close ally of Navalny has urged U.S. President Joe Biden to take punitive action against a wider group of associates of President Vladimir Putin, saying current sanctions aren’t sufficient to stop the Kremlin from cracking down on political opponents and violating human rights.
“Existing sanctions don’t reach enough of the right people,” Vladimir Ashurkov wrote in a letter to Biden posted on his Facebook page on Saturday. He listed 35 people, including billionaires Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov, senior staffers of Putin’s administration, and the heads of several state companies who Navalny says should be targeted.