Alexei @navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation We will fight Putin until we win! Donate: https://xitter.cf/t.co/PgAsyLywhu
Joined April 2022
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❗️Alexei Navalny was poisoned. The examination results.
We have obtained the results of an independent examination of Alexei Navalny’s biological samples, which were taken out of Russia after his death in prison. We now know with certainty that Alexei was poisoned — and we know exactly with what.
Today, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands publicly confirmed the poisoning.
Laboratories identified epibatidine in the samples — a powerful neurotoxin derived from the skin of an Ecuadorian poison dart frog. This substance is classified as a prohibited chemical agent. Only the Russian authorities had the motive, the means, and the opportunity to administer such a toxin inside a high-security penal colony.
We now know the truth: Vladimir Putin poisoned Alexei Navalny with a chemical weapon.
Today in Madrid 🇪🇸, @yulia_navalnaya received the Freedom Award from the Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies (Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales — FAES), which is headed by former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar.
Previous recipients include Margaret Thatcher, former king of Spain Juan Carlos I, and other distinguished figures. Navalnaya shared this award with the prominent Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad, and Cuban dissident Rosa María Payá.
Bewilderment and Frustration.
Those are the main feelings after the EU's biggest sanctions package yet against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
🪖 Putin Needs More Soldiers. Here’s How He Gets Them.
Russia has developed an extensive system for sending men to war without declaring another mass mobilization.
Read the full article on our Substack: anticorruptionfoundation.sub…
The Anti-Corruption Foundation retweeted
Let me say what troubles me about this position.
First, the inconsistency.
From the very beginning of the war in Ukraine, my colleagues and I urged that sanctions be extended to the family members of the Russian political elite. This would have been even more effective than sanctioning the officials themselves: children and spouses can exert pressure on the regime’s beneficiaries. Yet the European Union could not bring itself to adopt such a policy.
“Children are not responsible for their fathers’ actions,” we were told. Yet for some reason all Russians are held accountable for the actions of a government they have no power to influence: elections in Russia are rigged, protests are brutally suppressed, and opponents of the regime are imprisoned or killed.
As a result, sanctions do not even apply to relatives who act as nominal asset holders and beneficiaries of criminal schemes involving officials close to Putin — for example, Varvara Skoch (Manturova), the daughter of sanctioned MP Andrei Skoch and the daughter-in-law of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, who is responsible for the entire military industry.
Second, the unfairness. Visa restrictions are imposed only on poor Russians. The wealthy hold second citizenships acquired with money gained through corruption.
The aforementioned Varvara Skoch holds a passport from Cyprus, an EU country. I recently published an investigation showing that the daughter-in-law of Russian Deputy Defence Minister Leonid Gornin had also acquired a second citizenship through real estate investment.
It is the poor, not the rich, who suffer most from the restrictions placed on Russians. Take, for example, Alexei Zolotarev, a major contractor for the Ministry of Defence — I investigated him as well. He bought himself Maltese citizenship and a villa in France. He vacations in Courchevel while the war is ongoing. Meanwhile, Russians who do not hold a second passport are prohibited from crossing the borders of a number of EU countries.
Thirdly, the ineffectiveness. One of the arguments for the new visa restrictions on Russians is security. However, Russian intelligence agencies have long used agents holding passports not from Russia, but from EU countries, Ukraine or the Balkans — who are entitled to visa-free entry into the Schengen Area — to carry out acts of sabotage.
We must stop issuing tourist visas for Russian citizens across the EU.
I have invited other EU Member States to join a letter addressed to the European Commission. I am calling for a complete EU ban on Russian tourist visas for as long as Russia continues its war of aggression.
It is not right that Russians can travel to Europe to enjoy the way of life and freedoms here while their country bombs the homes of Ukrainians. Issuing visas to Russians for non-essential travel was banned in Finland already in 2022. The same must finally happen at the EU level.
I am also calling for a ban on Schengen visas to Putin’s inner circle, visa restrictions for Russian athletes, and the effective implementation of the visa ban on Russian combatants.
The EU must act together.
um.fi/current-affairs/-/asse…
🪖 Putin Can’t Win His War, but He Can Make Everyone Else Suffer
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‼️ Statement by the Anti-Corruption Foundation on Sanctions and the Release of Political Prisoners
We welcome any genuine efforts aimed at securing the release of Russian political prisoners.
It recently emerged that the U.S. administration is considering easing sanctions on Russia in exchange for the release of people persecuted for political reasons. It remains unclear whether this idea will lead to actual negotiations, or what the outcome of such negotiations might be. But if such a window of opportunity opens, it should be used to secure the release of as many people as possible.
Our position is that such negotiations should not be limited to lists of individual names. Hundreds of people in Russia are in prison for speaking out against the war, taking part in peaceful protests, supporting the opposition, donating to organizations designated as “extremist” by the authorities, and engaging in other forms of peaceful political activity. Many politically motivated cases never become public, which is why we consider it simply impossible to compile a complete list of political prisoners in Russia.
Moreover, releasing a number of political prisoners now would not prevent the Russian authorities from bringing new cases under the very same laws the next day. Such a deal would therefore fail to address the underlying problem.
We therefore propose a different approach: sanctions relief should be tied not only to the release of individual prisoners, but also to the repeal of repressive provisions in Russian law and the termination of entire categories of politically motivated criminal cases.
Decriminalizing Articles 207.3 and 280.3 of the Russian Criminal Code, commonly known as the laws on “military fakes” and “discrediting the army,” would mean releasing those convicted under these provisions, terminating ongoing proceedings, and preventing any new cases from being brought on these grounds.
The same principle should apply to politically motivated prosecutions under laws on “extremism,” “financing extremism,” “justifying terrorism,” and similar provisions when peaceful political activity, donations, speech, and beliefs are treated as criminal offenses.
Sanctions are one of the few real forms of leverage that democratic countries have over the Kremlin. If sanctions are to be eased, it is important that every such decision be accompanied by concrete, verifiable, and lasting changes inside Russia. The opportunity to secure these changes must not be missed, just as sanctions relief must not be traded for symbolic concessions.
We will work to ensure that any such negotiations bring the greatest possible benefit to Russian civil society.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation retweeted
It turns out that, for Europe, it doesn’t really matter whether you support the war or not, whether you are friends with Putin or oppose him. In the end, what seems to matter far more is how much money you have in your bank accounts.
If you are rich, own a couple of yachts, and have the right connections, it appears that sanctions can be lifted without too much trouble. But if you fled Russia with little more than a few belongings because of political persecution or mobilisation, because you do not support the war, then it is a different story: you may be denied a visa, refused a bank account, confronted with countless obstacles, and effectively pushed back into the embrace of Putin’s system. And, on top of that, accused of supporting the war.
Thank you to the European Comission for yet another reminder that, in high politics, money still speaks louder than principles, while the fate of ordinary people often ends up somewhere far down the list of priorities.
Viva European Comission! Viva money and Putin’s oligarchs! 🥂
The Anti-Corruption Foundation retweeted
This disgraceful decision makes the contrast perfectly clear: the EU’s hardline statements about the need to stand up to Russia, and its simultaneous capitulation to Putin and his regime.
I shall quote Alexei Navalny:
There is no need to impose sanctions on Russia. Sanctions far harsher than those now in force should be imposed on those who plunder Russia, make its people poorer and rob them of their future. That is exactly what they should be called: a “sanctions package in support of the Russian people, against corruption, lies and tyranny”.
By lifting the sanctions on Fridman and Usmanov, the European Union is doing precisely the opposite: it is helping Vladimir Putin’s regime and harming the people of Russia.
The EU is close to removing two key Putin-linked oligarchs, Mikhail Fridman and Alisher Usmanov, from its sanctions list.
Both are important figures in Putin’s regime and have close ties to him. This is a deeply troubling and concerning decision and a clear signal to Putin’s friends that money and connections can help them get around sanctions.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation retweeted
Una lunga inchiesta internazionale sulle attività dell’intelligence russa in Italia, condotta per settimane insieme a dissidenti, attivisti e giornalisti investigativi di diversi Paesi.
Vi svelo nomi, racconto biografie, relazioni e movimenti di uomini collegati all’ambasciata russa di Roma, incrociando documenti, banche dati e fonti internazionali. Dalla propaganda al reclutamento, fino alla raccolta di informazioni e ai possibili collegamenti con apparati militari e di sicurezza: una rete ampia e strutturata che attenta alla nostra sicurezza nazionale.
“Le spie russe che Mosca nasconde nella sua ambasciata a Roma”: la mia inchiesta in edicola oggi su @ilriformista .
Putin is a murderer. His agents continue to hunt down critics of the regime even abroad.
justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/mem…
The Anti-Corruption Foundation retweeted
1. This thread is addressed to 🇫🇷 France’s @francediplo and @francediplo_EN, which, according to media reports, has backed the removal of Putin’s oligarch Alisher Usmanov from the EU sanctions lists.
The words “huge frustration,” which journalists use to describe the reaction to France’s position, are only a pale shadow of the real emotions.
But decisions are not taken on emotion. They are taken on facts. So I will set out, with links to investigations, how central a figure Alisher Usmanov is to the Kremlin and to the system Putin has built — and how wrong and counterproductive it would be to lift sanctions on him.
❗️We found luxury real estate in the West owned by yet another deputy from Putin’s United Russia party.
Yevgeny Apostolov has been making money from a chain of pawnshops in the city of Astrakhan for decades. With that money, his family purchased €8.7 million worth of real estate in Marbella, Spain. Some of the apartments are rented out to tourists on a short-term basis.
Apostolov is now running for a seat in the State Duma.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation retweeted
🔛🔹Far vincere la democrazia
🗣️A Ventotene il dialogo tra
🔹Yulia Navalnaya, Leader dell’opposizione politica russa
🔹VP PE @pinapic
Vicepresidente del Parlamento europeo
🔹Pietro Guastamacchia @Euractiv
📡 youtube.com/live/haDWX9GkM8U…
This week, ACF celebrated its 15th anniversary. To mark the occasion, we’re organizing an auction featuring unique lots.
givebutter.com/c/acf_bday/au…
Get a custom item made by our staff and support our work!
We have found real estate in Italy 🇮🇹 owned by a member of Putin’s United Russia party.
Alexey Denisenko actively criticizes the West and supports all of Putin’s initiatives, including the war against Ukraine. Despite this, two apartments in the Italian city of Civitanova Marche are registered in the name of his 70-year-old mother.
Denisenko is now planning to run for the Russian State Duma.
A map of Alexei Navalny memorials around the world
We’ve compiled a list and map of memorials dedicated to Alexei Navalny on the Archive’s website. Now, at navalny.com/memorials, you can find streets and squares named after Alexei, commemorative plaques, murals, and other memorial sites around the world.
