If the Russian government labels Navalny's Anti-corruption Foundation extremist, i.e. terrorist, that should be the final nail in Western treatment of Russian state & judiciary authorities. They should no longer be respected.
atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-resea…
1. The West should no longer pay any attention to Russian Red Notices. @Billbrowder
2. Should the democratic West set up an alternative Interpol only for countries that respect the rule of law? This could be part of Biden's summit of democracies.
3. Russian state agencies should not be given a voice in Western court processes, simply discarded as illegitimate.
4. In particular, Russian state agencies should have no right to raise discovery cases in the US, often used by the Russian state to go after political refugees.
5. Russian court decisions, notably flawed bankruptcy cases that are just state corporate raiding, should be dismissed as such by Western courts.
6. In particular, individuals sanctioned by Western governments should not be allowed in Western court. No more videos!
7. Russia is a major source of money laundering & the big money laundering is carried out by the big state banks that should face greater transparency demands & possibly be blocked.
8. State companies involved in gross larceny (Gazprom) should be prohibited from Western banks.
9. Russia should no longer be treated as a bona fide participant in FATF, which it uses to pursue bona fide Russian businessmen who have fled to the West, while it protects the Putin money launderers. Expel Russia from FATF!
10. The ultimate question, not yet to be considered, is whether the US should label Russia a rogue or terrorist state as Iran and Syria. What else is a lawless state that represses its citizens & sends its GRU & FSB squads to kill right & left, Russians & foreigners?

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More from @anders_aslund

25 Apr
I think that @JoeBiden's commitment to a summit of democracies is a great idea, drawing on Madeleine Albright's community of democracies, but the conditions & aims need to be clear. For 15 years democracies have lost against authoritarians. This summit could turn the tide.
1. The aim should be to establish a certain set of minimal rules for a democracy. Multiple excellent political scientists can do that: @McFaul @LarryDiamond @FukuyamaFrancis @vjb23 @timothymfrye
This should lead to the creating of an international organization of democracy.
2. Similarly, there is no international organization for the development of the rule of law. The summit should intend to set up such an organization as well, but it should be separate from the organization of democracy, because it requires lawyers, not political scientists.
Read 7 tweets
22 Apr
When meeting Lukashenka, Putin attacked Ukraine viciously: "the current Ukrainian leadership took many steps that are destroying Russian-Ukrainian relations...It includes their attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church and attempts to destroy it."
"This applies to their attitude towards the Russian language and Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine and Russian citizens living in Ukraine."
All this is qualified nonsense.
en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…
Putin continues "if President Zelensky wants to start restoring these relations, we will only welcome this....what would we discuss at this meeting? If the discussion concerns the problems of Donbass, the Ukrainian leaders must, first of all, meet with the heads of the republics"
Read 6 tweets
21 Apr
Putin's much delayed annual speech to the Federal Assembly was almost entirely devoted to domestic issues. 20 minutes for each: Coronavirus, social & economic issues. Very positive: Almost everything is good & it will become even better.
en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…
Putin stumbles when reading & missed many small things in the text, which was full of irrelevant details & numbers. As usual, he set no overall goals of relevance of growth rate, etc. The 1 hour & 20 minutes long speech was incredibly boring & many fell asleep.
The brief security section of barely 10 minutes did not mention the US, the EU or the current situation in Ukraine. The main emphasis was on an alleged attempt at coup in Belarus & attempt to murder Lukashenka.
Read 5 tweets
20 Apr
By trying to kill @navalny, Putin has put himself in a los-lose position. If he kills Navalny, Navalny will become Anatoly Marchenko. If Navalny survives, he will become Andrei Sakharov. In December 1986, the fearless Marchenko died at the age of 48 in a Soviet prison hospital.
Marchenko was the 2nd most prominent dissident after Sakharov. He died after a three-month-long hunger strike. In 1969, Marchenko was sentenced for "defamation of the Soviet political system", & in 1981 he got a 15-year sentence for "anti-Soviet agitation,” but he was a fighter.
Marchenko’s goal was the release of all Soviet prisoners of conscience & he succeeded. His death caused a major international outcry; 11 days after his death, Gorbachev freed Sakharov from his enforced exile in Gorky.
Read 4 tweets
15 Apr
What the US sanctions on Russia today really mean (sorry for some repetition):
1. The Biden administration has completed its review of the Russia sanctions program & presented a new executive order which catches it all - broader & renders CAATSA nearly redundant.
2. The main real sanction was on Russia's government debt. It is small, only $61 bn, but from now on Russia can't expand its public debt significantly. The US controls Russian state finances.
3. The US shows that its intelligence works: It exposed all the main culprits for cyber crimes, election interference & war in Africa.
4. The whole US administration acted together & also with Western allies. The West has been resurrected by Biden.
Read 4 tweets
13 Apr
Biden to Putin "emphasized the US unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The President voiced our concerns over the sudden Russian military build-up in occupied Crimea and on Ukraine’s borders, and called on Russia to de-escalate tensions."
2. In today's phone call with Putiin, "President Biden also made clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to Russia’s actions, such as cyber intrusions and election interference."
whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
3. Biden "reaffirmed his goal of building a stable and predictable relationship with Russia consistent with U.S. interests, and proposed a summit meeting in a third country in the coming months to discuss the full range of issues facing the United States and Russia."
Read 5 tweets

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