Flashbang Thread: Updates From the Ongoing Crackdowns in Russia & Belarus. Naturally, @navalny will be kept in jail past the date of Russia's next election on trumped up charges. We'll start with that story. There are 6 total and one podcast below.
'On August 11, the Investigative Committee -- a top law enforcement body whose chief is a close Putin ally -- announced that he has been charged with creating an organization that infringes on the rights and personal safety of citizens...' Absurd. rferl.org/a/week-in-russ…
'A court in southwestern Russia has handed a three-year prison term to a Jehovah's Witness amid an ongoing crackdown on the religious group that has been banned in Russia since 2017.' Apparently Jehovah's are an "extremist organization." rferl.org/a/russia-jehov…
'Prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to sentence Kira Yarmysh, the spokeswoman of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, to two years of so-called "restricted freedom."' No surprise here. rferl.org/a/russia-yarmy…
'A son of the jailed former governor of Russia's Far Eastern region of Khabarovsk has been denied registration for next month's parliamentary elections.' This one has to be the most insane. Key detail below. His father was arrested on bogus charges. 1/3 rferl.org/a/russia-furga…
'Khabarovsk's election commission on ... announced its decision regarding the application of Anton Furgal, saying that some 5,000 of almost 15,800 signatures of the hopeful's supporters were not valid due to numerous issues, including using "a wrong ink color."' Laughable. 2/3
'His father, Sergei Furgal of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, was elected in 2018 to the post of the region's governor in a runoff that he won handily against the longtime incumbent from the Kremlin-backed ruling United Russia party.' 3/3
'The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it's keeping "close watch" on the situation in Belarus amid calls for the global lender to deny Alyaksandr Lukashenka's government access to newly allocated funds intended to help countries navigate the coronavirus crisis.' 1/2
This is totally ridiculous. Countries are forced to reform their entire economies to receive IMF loans but Belarus, currently torturing its own people for protesting a fraudulent election, gets the funds no problem? 2/2 rferl.org/a/belarus-imf-…
'A court in Belarus has designated leading independent news outlet Tut. by* and its new media site, Zerkalo. io*, as "extremist."' The outlet was covering the protests which obviously wasn't going to fly but they tried. (*Spaces added to the links.) 1/2 rferl.org/a/belarus-tutb…
'The site Zerkalo. io* was created last month by journalists from Tut. by* after Belarusian authorities blocked its popular news site, froze the company's bank accounts, and detained a number of staff for alleged tax evasion.' (*Remove space if you wish to visit the sites.) 2/2
This @IISS_org podcast covers the situation in Belarus one year after the disputed fraudulent election. They talk Belarusian-Russian relations, the strange arrest of members of the Russian PMC Wagner Group, the Olympics, & a need for justice one day. 1/2 iiss.org/blogs/podcast/…
"Every month we are testing new lows in the things that it is doing that are unaaceptable domestically and internationally." @Nigelgd1 pointed this out and also wondered how much worse the regime's behaviour will get. 2/2
I so hope that one day we find the files showing who implemented this brutal and severe crackdown on the Belarusian people so they can be charged and face justice. I fear that, as with so many other cases, they will never face any kind of justice. Or at least most won't.
Update: 'Russia has refused to renew a visa for a BBC journalist in Moscow, effectively expelling her from the country.' @BBCNews has called this an 'assault on media freedom' which, of course, it very much is. rferl.org/a/bbc-rainsfor…
It was only July 30 when I posted my last short thread on the crackdowns in Belarus and Russia. These moves are coming nonstop. It seems both Lukashenko and Putin are scared. A link to that thread...
https://twitter.com/WatchingEurasia/status/1421259431128358918
The Crackdown Continues: 'The Interfax news agency has quoted two sources as saying that Kira Yarmysh, the spokeswoman for jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, has left Russia after a court restricted her freedom...' for BS reasons. rferl.org/a/31435354.html
'Prosecutors in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk have asked a court to sentence an anarchist couple to six years in prison each on charges of hooliganism and vandalism...' Remember these names. These are true freedom fighters. Not anti-mask protesters. rferl.org/a/chelyabinsk-…
'A Moscow court has handed a suspended sentence to a participant of the January 23 rally to support opposition politician Aleksei Navalny after convicting him of attacking an officer and damaging a police car during the dispersal of demonstrators.' rferl.org/a/russia-naval…
'The group's spokeswoman, Aleksandra Zakharova, said police detained Anastasia Vasilyeva, a supporter of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny...' No surprise here. Her NGO was deemed a "foreign agent" earlier this year. rferl.org/a/russia-anast…
'The move, announced on September 3, comes as Russian authorities tighten control of the Internet, blocking access to dozens of websites ahead of parliamentary elections this month.' I'll keep this thread going to cover Putin's ongoing crackdown. rferl.org/a/russia-vpns-…
'Jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says he has distributed the financial part of the Boris Nemtsov Prize, 10,000 euros ($11,850), he received in February, among the families of four political prisoners.' Beautiful. Go @navalny! rferl.org/a/navalny-dona…
'A court in Russia's North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria has given a suspended two-year prison sentence to an activist who has no hands after finding him guilty of attacking police.' Putin is so scared with a man with no hands? Looking really weak! rferl.org/a/russia-handl…
'Russian authorities on Monday blocked a website of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny that instructed supporters how to vote out candidates from the ruling party in polls later this month.' What a shock, screw Putin. @navalny's ideas live on. voanews.com/europe/russia-…
'A court in Russian-annexed Crimea ordered Crimean Tatar leader Nariman Dzhelyal to be held in custody for two months on September 6 on suspicion of involvement in an attack on a gas pipeline, a charge dismissed by Ukraine as fabricated.' rferl.org/a/crimean-tata…
'Russian tech firm Yandex said on Tuesday it had removed jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's tactical voting website from its search engine to comply with a government ban ahead of a parliamentary election this month.' Another sign Putin is scared? reuters.com/world/russian-…
'UN special rapporteur Anais Marin has cited "terrible repression" and says the crackdown in Belarus on the country's human rights groups has hindered international monitoring of abuses there.' #LongLiveBelarus rferl.org/a/belarus-un-r…
'One of Russia’s top human rights lawyers, who is representing jailed journalist Ivan Safronov, has left the country after the authorities opened a case against him for allegedly disclosing classified information about his client’s case.' rferl.org/a/russia-safro…
This is horrific... 'RFE/RL freelance correspondent Vladyslav Yesypenko, who has been in detention in Russian-occupied Crimea, has made detailed allegations in court about being tortured while in custody.' rferl.org/a/ukraine-russ…
Clearly this thread has become much longer than I envisioned initially. I'll be updated this one with news of the crackdowns in Russia and Belarus, as well as the environmental disaster thread. I've added many more stories to the initial post, see them above.
'Russian police have detained three journalists as they protested outside the Justice Ministry against the government's widening crackdown on media outlets.' Protests have to be sanctioned by the Kremlin in Russia. What a joke. rferl.org/a/russia-journ…
'A court in Belarus has extended the pretrial detention of Sofia Sapega, who was arrested along with her boyfriend, opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich, in Minsk...' House arrest simply for dating a "criminal." rferl.org/a/belarus-sape…
‘…on March 29th, police arrested Zhdanov’s sixty-six-year-old father. He was formally charged with abuse of office, stemming from his time as a small-town official in Russia’s northern Nenets region.’ Same thing in Russia. newyorker.com/news/dispatch/…
'A Russian court has sentenced five Jehovah’s Witnesses to between six and six-and-a-half years in prison in the latest crackdown on the religious group that is banned in the country.' rferl.org/a/russia-jehov…
'This week, a court in Ussuriisk, north of the regional capital, Vladivostok, sentenced two local actors to short jail stints because of their appearances in an online comedy sketch ribbing local officials and the ruling United Russia party.' rferl.org/a/russia-parod…
'Russia has declared two organizations linked to the U.S.-based Church of Scientology "undesirable,” in a move that is likely to lead to the group’s banning.' ...Can't say I disagree with this one. rferl.org/a/russia-scien…
I'll have to end updates to this thread. I'll leave you with this lovely video from last month on Navalny's "Smart Voting" strategy. It applies elsewhere. Perhaps your ideal candidate isn't running, that doesn't mean don't vote. You may never vote. rferl.org/a/putin-kremli…
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