Disinfo: The West is using Navalny's case as a pretext for sanctions

Summary

The West does not care about the fate of Alexei Navalny despite the statements about the recent court verdict against him. It is using his case as a pretext to impose sanctions against Russia as they did in the past, like 2011, 2016 and 2020.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Alexei Navalny and sanctions against Russia.

Alexei Navalny was arrested and shortly after sentenced to prison following his return to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for poisoning with a Novichok-type chemical nerve agent. The European Union has condemned his arrest and demanded his immediate release.

Navalny was sentenced to three and a half years in prison as a Moscow court ruled in favour of the prosecution’s accusation that Mr. Navalny had violated parole on a prison sentence that he received in 2014. He and his brother were convicted of stealing about $500,000 from two companies. However, this was a conviction that the European Court of Human Rights called “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable”.

This is one of the reasons that many Western officials have called for the immediate release of Mr. Navalny. Additionally, Alexei Navalny is an independent Russian politician, not a pawn of any foreign government. His decision to return to Russia is related to his refusal to become an exile and to internal deliberations of his political movement, not to any order from abroad.

See related disinformation cases alleging that the US hopes that the Navalny case will lead to the cancellation of Nord Stream 2; the West will falsely accuse Russia of poisoning Navalny as with Skripal and Litvinenko; the West has an interest in the death of Navalny to launch a new wave of sanctions against Russia.

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sputniknews.gr (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 230
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 03/02/2021
  • Outlet language(s) Greek
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Russia
  • Keywords: Anti-Russian, Alexei Navalny, Maria Zakharova, Sanctions, Russophobia
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Disinfo: Russians bring truth to PACE: Navalny was rescued and not poisoned, Georgia attacked South Ossetia

We really convince people every month more and more that in Russia, it turns out, what is written in the Western European mass media is not happening. We prove that Navalny was saved and not poisoned. We show that on August 8, 2008, it was Saakashvili’s regime that invaded Tskhinvali and that the Russian peacekeepers also suffered, but Russia did not invade. We prove that there must be the truth here in PACE.

Feb 02, 2021
Disproof

The statements are not true. On January 25, 2021 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) published a provisional Resolution 2357 (2021), containing the following paragraph 9.11:

"Russian Federation: a number of outstanding concerns, including, inter alia, lack of pluralism, independence of the judiciary, restrictive environment for activities of political extra-parliamentary opposition, civil society, human rights activists and journalists, restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, association and religion as well as a number of problematic laws including the Foreign Agents Law, the Law on Undesirable Organisations or anti-extremist legislation, ratification of amendments to the Constitution that introduce major restrictions on application of international law and implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights; the lack of progress with regard to implementing the demands of the international community with regard to Eastern Ukraine, Crimea, the occupied Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia and the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova;"

See also the previous PACE resolution on the consequences of the war between Georgia in Russia. Thus, the Assembly considers that:

"from the point of view of international law, the notion of “protecting citizens abroad” is not acceptable and is concerned by the political implications of such a policy by the Russian authorities for other member states", addressing Russian official claim of protecting its own citizens in South Ossetia. While emphasizing that "the initiation of shelling of Tskhinvali without warning by the Georgian military, on 7 August 2008, marked a new level of escalation", PACE stated that "earlier calls to discuss a change in the format of the peacekeeping and conflict resolution process were rejected by South Ossetia and Russia" and addressed the disproportionate Russia's response fire.

As for Alexey Navalny, the PACE's debates (without adopting a resolution yet) took place on January 27, 2021. As is clear from the transcript, the Russian delegation failed to convince other PACE's members that Navalny was not poisoned with the nerve agent and that his prosecution in Russia is not political.

Alexei Navalny was arrested following his return to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for poisoning with Novichok-type chemical nerve agent. The European Union has condemned the arrest of Alexei Navalny and has demanded his immediate release.

Disinfo: Foreign diplomats meddle in Russia's sovereign affairs

Meddling in sovereign affairs. Foreign diplomats gather at Russian court to support Western puppet Navalny.

According to local sources, diplomatic staff of at least 18 foreign states, including those from the United States, the UK, Bulgaria, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Sweden, are present.

Feb 02, 2021
Disproof

Court hearings are, as a rule, open to the public. Diplomats have the right, just as any other member of the public, to attend a court hearing. International diplomats are present to observe whether the Russian judiciary fulfils its functions according to Russian law and Russia's international obligations on human rights.

The unfounded and recurrent claim on Navalny being a "Western Puppet" is presented without any evidence. Similar cases here and here.

Disinfo: Navalny's poisoning was a set up against Russia

Moscow has reasons to believe that the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny was a set up. Germany has not presented any credible evidence that Russia poisoned Navalny with Novichok despite Moscow’s repeated calls.

Feb 02, 2021
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the Navalny poisoning and also a pro-Kremlin approach portraying every measure taken against Russia's actions as Russophobia.

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny fell ill during a flight and the plane had to make an emergency landing in Omsk, where doctors said he was in a coma and they were trying to save his life. From Omsk, he had been transferred to Berlin and has received treatment at Berlin's Charité Hospital. The German federal government said that toxicological tests provided “unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group” in the blood samples of Navalny.