Russia represses pro-Navalny, US and EU chirp

REUTERS

Law enforcement officers detain a protestor during a rally in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia January 31, 2021. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Anger boils in the blood of Russian youth even at temperatures plummeting below freezing. At every time zone and in every city: with little fear of frost, even less of batons and arrests. The promise was kept: the people of Aleksey Navalny returned to the Russian streets just as they swore to do exactly a week ago. The first to invade the squares was the easternmost city of those in the Federation that protest against the detention of the opponent: Vladivostok.

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VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA - JANUARY 31, 2021: Riot police are seen during an unauthorised protest in support... — VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA – JANUARY 31, 2021: Riot police are seen during an unauthorised protest in support of the detained opposition activist Alexei Navalny in Sportivnaya Naberezhnaya Street. Navalny, who had been handed a suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case in 2014, was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport near Moscow on 17 January 2021 for violating probation conditions. A court ruled that Navalny be put into custody until 15 February 2021. Yuri Smityuk/TASS (Photo by Yuri SmityukTASS via Getty Images)

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General winter, ally of the Kremlin: in Krasnadarsk, to prevent demonstrators from gathering in the city center, two “sugrob”, huge piles of snow, were used as a barricade to block access to two squares that are called – by chance, ironically or metaphorically -, Red Square and Revolution Square. “Russia will be free”, the boys of St. Petersburg scream in stun like the guns that the police then decide to use against the crowd to disperse it.

Moscow is a fortress: The map of the armored capital this Sunday is pierced by red and straight lines: seven metro stops are closed to prevent the arrival of the demonstrators, who have not been able to reach the Lubyanka, the headquarters of the KGB. the secret services accused by Navalny of being guilty of his poisoning. The blogger’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, was once again stopped by the uniforms as she reached the walls of the prison where her husband is being held, then released after a few hours.

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From Khabarovsk to Novosibirsk, there are thousands on the streets of the Urals. If the anger of the young Russians increases one weekend after another, so too does the deployed force of the Omon, anti-riot squads. “Massovye zaderzhanya”, or mass arrests, is the concise title of the Russian press which updates the number of detainees in exponential growth, from one side of the country to the other: it is certainly not the figure, but only a fact. Last week’s record – when over 4,000 people ended up in jail – was beaten even before darkness falls. In the evening the budget is over 5 thousand stopped, with more than 80 journalists on the list.

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If on returning home from Berlin last January 17, aware of the handcuffs waiting for him at the airport, Navalny aimed to favor the escalation of marches against Vladimir Putin, he now sees the courage of a gamble that has proved successful rewarded, even if far from being fatal, against the Kremlin. How right was the prediction of the pressure that would be exerted on Moscow after the change of power in the White House.

The US does not wait to send signals of condemnation. It is Antony Blinken who tweets when it is still dawning in Washington: the secretary of state appointed by the new president Joe Biden returns to denounce the “brutal tactics used against peaceful protesters and journalists: we renew the appeal to Russia to release the detainees”.

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The U.S. condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight. We renew our call for Russia to release those detained for exercising their human rights, including Aleksey Navalny.

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) January 31, 2021

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Putin does not say a word, to reply with extreme harshness is the Moscow Foreign Ministry, which accuses the Americans not only of “gross interference” in internal affairs, but also of the responsibility of directing the protests: “support for a violation of law by Secretary Blinken is another confirmation of the role played by Washington behind the scenes ”.

We have to wait several hours for rumors of condemnation to arrive from Brussels. Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni does so first in terms of solidarity with the demonstrators in a tweet in which he accompanies the images of the crowds in Moscow with the words “democracy warms the heart”. The High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell does so when the day is drawing to a close and with the traditional tones of diplomacy, also via Twitter, condemning the arrests and the disproportionate use of force. “People must be able to exercise their right to demonstrate without fear of repression. Russia must respect its international commitments ”writes the Spaniard.

He will be the one to sit at the table with his Russian counterpart Serghey Lavrov next Friday, to ask for an account of the Navalny case, but without too belligerent intentions. Europe does not threaten sanctions and the words of condemnation, as often happens, will soon be forgotten if not followed by punitive measures. Sentiments of firm condemnation of the “brutal repression” were also leaked by the Farnesina, with internal sources calling for “the release of those who were arrested only for having made their voices heard peacefully and expressed their ideas without violence”.

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Democracy warms the heart #Moscow pic.twitter.com/Lthx3Cw9i8

– Paolo Gentiloni (@PaoloGentiloni) January 31, 2021

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The match of the Russian president, when the Russians take to the streets, is always on two fronts, even if one is outside his window and the other overseas. To those who envision a Belarusian scenario for the Federation, the Kremlin replies by recalling, with words and deeds, that Moscow is not Minsk, Russia is not on an inclined plane. Putin knows that even those who no longer want him in power are more afraid of a Russia without him. And even if every Sunday is Navalny’s Russia, every Monday it becomes his.

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