Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny yesterday called on the EU to take tough action against oligarchs close to the Kremlin, as he continued his recovery in Germany after being poisoned by a nerve agent.
Germany on Tuesday said that it was discussing with its partners what action to take after the global chemicals watchdog confirmed Navalny had been poisoned with a new and undeclared variant in the Novichok family of nerve agents.
Several Western governments have said that Russia, which has denied accusations by Navalny that it was involved in the poisoning, must help in the investigations or face consequences.
Photo: AFP
“Sanctions against the whole country don’t work. The most important thing is to impose entry bans on profiteers of the regime and freeze their assets,” Navalny told German daily Bild.
“They embezzle money, steal billions, and at the weekend they fly to Berlin or London, buy expensive apartments and sit in cafes,” he said.
He singled out Valery Gergiev, chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, as a target for sanctions, saying he was a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny was airlifted to Berlin for treatment after taking ill on a flight in Siberia on Aug. 20 and has since been discharged. He has said he wants to return to Russia.
He was scathing about what he said was Russia’s failure to help in the investigation.
“There is not even an attempt to make it look like they are investigating,” Navalny told Bild, reiterating his view that his poisoning was a direct order from Putin.
Navalny also criticized former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a friend of Putin and lobbyist for Russian energy firms, calling him “an errand boy for Putin who protects murderers.”
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
Chinese authorities are snuffing out any remembrance of the deadly 1989 military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, which happened 37 years ago yesterday, in a further tightening of a years-long campaign to erase what happened from public memory. Police told relatives of the victims they would not be allowed to visit a cemetery in Beijing on the anniversary of the crackdown, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Relatives of the victims visited the cemetery on the anniversary for more than 30 years to read memorial statements with police keeping watch, Amnesty International said. Hundreds of people,
RSS