Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
A thorn in Putin’s side, Kremlin critic Navalny sent to Russian prison
MOSCOW — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sent to a prison outside Moscow to serve his sentence, his lawyer said Thursday, a move that comes despite a demand by Europe’s top human rights court for his release.
Navalny lawyer Vadim Kobzev didn’t immediately say what prison he was sent to. Russian news reports have previously indicated that Navalny, who has been held in a maximum-security jail in Moscow, would likely be sent to a facility in western Russia.
Navalny, 44, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vociferous foe, was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation and accused Navalny of cooperating with Western intelligence agencies — claims he has ridiculed.
Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to2 ½ years in prison for violating the terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated — and which the European Court of Human Rights has ruled to be unlawful.
Navalny’s arrest has fueled a wave of protests that drew tens of thousands to the streets across Russia. Authorities have detained about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days.
Russian officials have dismissed demands from the United States and the European Union to free Navalny and stop the crackdown on his supporters.
Lady Gaga’s dogs stolen: Lady Gaga’s dog walker was shot and two of the singer’s French bulldogs were stolen in Hollywood during an armed robbery, police said. The singer is offering a $500,000 reward.
The dog walker was shot once Wednesday night and is expected to survive his injuries, according to Los Angeles police Capt. Jonathan Tippett, commanding officer of the department’s elite Robbery-Homicide Division. The man was walking three of Lady Gaga’s dogs at the time, but one escaped. That dog has been recovered safely.
Tippett told The Associated Press that the dogs belong to the pop star. It’s not yet clear if the dog walker was targeted because of his celebrity client, the captain said.
Lady Gaga is currently in Rome to film a movie.
Trump’s tax records: A New York prosecutor has obtained copies of Donald Trump’s tax records after the U.S. Supreme Court this week rejected the former president’s last-ditch effort to prevent them from being handed over.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office enforced a subpoena on Trump’s accounting firm within hours of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday and now has the documents in hand, a spokesperson for the office, Danny Frost, said Thursday.
District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. had been fighting for a year and a half for access to Trump’s tax records for a criminal grand jury investigation into his business dealings. The documents are protected by grand jury secrecy rules and are not expected to be made public.
Vance is conducting an investigation that includes an examination of whether Trump or his businesses lied about the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits. The district attorney is also scrutinizing hush-money payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf.
Armenian tensions: Armenia’s prime minister accused top military officers on Thursday of attempting a coup after they demanded he step down, adding fuel to months of protests calling for his resignation following the country’s defeat in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has faced opposition calls to step down ever since he signed a Nov. 10 peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter century.
The opposition protests gathered pace this week, and the feud with his top military commanders has weakened Pashinyan’s position, raising concerns about stability in the strategic South Caucasus region, where shipments of Azerbaijan’s Caspian crude oil pass through on their way to Western markets.
Vaccine-sharing halted: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial plan to ship surplus coronavirus vaccines to a group of allied nations was frozen Thursday following a legal challenge to the deal, his office announced.
It was the latest twist in a saga that has raised questions at home about Netanyahu’s decision-making authority as well as his move to help far-flung nations in Africa and Latin America at a time when the neighboring Palestinian territories are struggling to secure their own vaccine supplies. The plan has also illustrated how at a time of global shortages, the vaccine has become an asset that can be used for diplomatic gain.
Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that he had personally decided to share small quantities of surplus Israeli vaccines with allied nations. He did not identify the countries, but an Israeli TV station said they included a number of nations that have supported Israel’s claims to the contested city of Jerusalem as its capital.
Netanyahu’s governing partner and rival, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, on Thursday called for a halt in the shipments, saying Israel’s stockpile of vaccines is the property of the state.
He attacked the prime minister’s go-it-alone approach and questioned Netanyahu’s claims that there are excess supplies when Israelis still have not been fully vaccinated.
Alabama executions: Alabama is amending its lethal injection procedures to allow a condemned inmate to have his spiritual adviser in the execution chamber, state lawyers wrote in a court filing Thursday.
The move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court this month sided with Alabama inmate Willie B. Smith III, who had sought to have his pastor in the chamber.
Alabama, which had previously argued that only prison staff should be allowed in the chamber for security reason, canceled Smith’s execution.
The filing did not give additional details about the state’s plan, including how long the spiritual adviser can stay in the chamber and if they will be present when the execution begins.
In past lethal injections, the state has allowed a prison chaplain to remain in the chamber.