Summary of Recent Russian Developments

The European Court of Human Rights condemned the Russian Federation, led by tyrant Vladimir Putin, an ex-Soviet intelligence officer, of violating the human rights of the democratic opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, specifically his right to assemble peacefully. Russia poisoned him last year with a Soviet-era nerve agent, the same chemical weapon used against a Russian exile in the United Kingdom. Putin’s regime routinely charges anyone who opposes him with crimes, imprisons them or sends them into exile and it even assaults or kills critics in Russia and abroad. After Navalny’s return to Russia, he was immediately arrested, but was able to release another video about the pro-Putin oligarchy’s luxurious lifestyle. Over the last few years, the opposition leader has been exposing the corruption of the oligarchic regime. After American intelligence agencies also determined the Putin regime’s responsibility for Navalny’s poisoning, the United States imposed economic sanctions on Kremlin officials, joined by the European Union. The dictatorship threatened Navalny’s supporters for planning rallies. Massive rallies nevertheless took place across Russia, despite thousands of arrests and violence by police. Putin’s regime has been closing opposition offices and websites and more opposition figures have been arrested. Meanwhile, the European Union again renewed economic sanctions against the Russian Federation because of its invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and later imposed more sanctions on Russia for human rights violations. In his address to the European Parliament in April, Russian opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovski notes the tyrannical Vladimir Putin regime's interference ("hostile activities") in western politics undermines politics "provoking conflicts, corruption and physical intimidation." Russian agents hacked the United States Agency for International Development, the entity that supports human rights organizations, including in Russia. Russians engaged in cyberattacks against American companies, including some of critical importance, such as energy supply, in exchange for demands for ransom. In addition, Russia and Communist China have been spreading information against American vaccines for Coronavirus, which has increased the contagion and deaths. The U.S. withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty in May because of too many Russian violations of the Cold War treaty that allowed aerial monitoring by the U.S. and Soviet Union of nuclear weapons programs.