Threatening mass demonstration all over Russia, 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny’s attorneys demand to see the inamate after he complained of back problems serving out his two-year-eight-month sentence in the Russian IK2 penal colony, 100 kilometers east of Moscow. Navalny’s attorneys heard he suffered from numbness in his leg, having difficulty standing. Nalvany’s lawyers Olga Mikhailova and Vadim Kobzev said they were denied access to the prisoner, claiming they had a right to see him. Kobsev said that was denied a access to the penal colony to check up on Navalny, despite visiting him daily in the days since his transfer Feb. 26. Navalny’s 40-year-old former chief-of-staff Leonid Volkov said he was planning mass demonstrations around Russia, demanding that his boss be released from prison. Last time that happened, demonstrators were subject to mass arrest.
Nalvany’s become a cause célèbre for the West, using his Aug. 24, 2020 poisoning in Tomsk, Siberia to prove that 68-year-old President Vladimir Putin violated the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, ordering Navalny poisoned with Soviet-era nerve agent, the same one used to poison exiled FSB Agent Sergei Skripal and his daughterYulia in Salisbury, U.K. March 4, 2018. Navalny’s almost died, was airlifted to Berlin for emergency medical treatment, eventually returning to Moscow against all advice Jan. 14, then promptly arrested by Russian authorities. Whatever happened to Navalny, 78-year-old U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made it their cause célèbre to decry Putin’s brutal tyranny, eventually slapping Russia with new economic sanctions March 2, leaving U.S.-EU-Russian relations in tatters.
Putin can’t for the life of him figure out why the U.S., especially EU, is willing to destroy diplomatic relations over Navanly, a known Russian dissident seeking to overthrow the Russian government. U.S. and EU has used Navalny as a pro-democracy poster boy, claiming he seeks a free Russia, when, in fact, Amnesty International stripped Navalny Feb. 24 of his “prisoner of conscience” status for past comments made about Chchens, calling them “cockroaches,” saying they only understood the “pistol.” Putin sees the U.S. and EU backing Navanly as a direct challenge to his rule in Russia. Navalny, with Volkov, manage a clandestine insurgency all over Russia, looking to topple Putin’s 20-year reign of power. Putin, as head of the sovereign Russian Federation, has a right ot go after insurgents seeking to topple his government. EU officials have strong business ties with the Russian Federation.
Putin’s been vilified so much in the U.S. and EU press that the Europeans Medicines Agencey [EMA] spokesman Thierry Breton said March 21 that they have “absolutely no need” for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. EU officials have lagged far behind the U.S. in delivering vaccines to its 450 million population, especially now thate there are real concerns about the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine. Whether the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is safer or as effective as advertises, there’s growing uncertainty about product. AstraZeneca has practically stood on its head declaring the vaccine safe from reports of cerebral or venal thrombosis. Whatever the situtation at the EMA, they need desperately more vaccines but have allowed a petty dispute with Putin to delay vaccinating 450 million citizens. Several EU countries, including Italy and Spain, have bypassed the EMA to get Sputnik V.
Volkov’s attempt to gain access to Navalny is to continue his campaign of coercion on the Kremlin, threatening mass demonstrations around Russia. Volkov’s threat has the backing of the U.S. and EU, making it more difficult for normal diplomatic relations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met yesterday with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to call on an emergency meeting of the permanent members of the Security Council to find a way of bridging differences. If trends continue, Lavrov and Jiechi fear it could destabilize world order and peace. Biden and his Secretary of State Tony Blinken have demanded that Putin release Navalny from prison, clearly interfering with Russia’s internal affairs. No one from the U.S. or EU can say why Navalny is worth wrecking U.S.-EU-Russian relations over a known Russian dissident seeking to overthrow the Russian government.
Volkov continues to orchestrate Navanly’s legal team to apply pressure on Putin and the Kremilin to release Navalny from prison. Volkov knows that more mass demonstrations would lead to another crackdown with mass arrests, just like the last time he encouraged street demonstrations around Russia. “Given all the circumstances known to us, the sharp deterioration of his health can only cause extreme concern,” Volkov said, know that prison officials, like any prison around the world, are responsible to for the health of inmates. Volkov’s demands, even staging street demonstrations, won’t force Putin and the Kremlin to release Navalny anytime soon. If Navalny’s suffering from a bad back, it’s not grounds to release him early from prison. Prison officials may have already sent Navalny to a prison hospital for treatment, explaining why his attorneys could not get to see him..
