The Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) said it presented a broader list of 35 people in total in a letter addressed to Biden, dated Friday, with eight nominated on a “priority priority list”. The letter says that seven of the 35 individuals are already on the U.S. sanction lists.
The move comes ahead of nationwide protests planned this weekend in support of Navalny, who is being held before a court hearing next week.
In a copy of the letter obtained by CNN, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is quoted on the “priority list”, which is why FBK describes him as a key facilitator and an alleged beneficiary of the “Kremlin kleptocracy”. Abramovich owns Chelsea, the English Premier League football club. A spokesman for Abramovich said in an emailed statement to CNN that “there is no basis for such allegations, which are totally unfounded”.
Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko was also cited for allegedly “covering up” Navalny’s poisoning and “hindering efforts” to evacuate the Russian opposition leader to Germany for medical treatment. CNN contacted the Russian Ministry of Health for comment.
FBK executive director Vladimir Ashurkov, who signed the letter, told CNN on Saturday that the foundation was asking the United States to pressure Putin to release Navalny.
“The letter is addressed to the President of the United States – the most powerful country. [The US] has a history of imposing sanctions on people who are involved in corruption. If anyone can do anything, it’s the US, ”Ashurkov told CNN.
The letter seen by CNN says that Navalny has for years called for sanctions against individuals he says are instrumental in “helping and encouraging” Putin in “persecuting” those who “seek to express their opinions freely and expose corruption in the [Russian] system, “adding that existing sanctions are not aimed at” enough of the right people. ”
“The West must sanction decision makers who have adopted it as a national policy to defraud elections, steal the budget and poison. It must also punish people who hold their money.” The letter continues: “Anything less will cause the regime to change its behavior.”
Ashurkov said he and Navalny worked on the list of 35 Russians before Navalny returned from Germany to Russia earlier this month, initially focusing on the top eight.
In the letter, the list of 35 people is divided into three groups:
- “Oligarchs to whom Putin has bestowed wealth and power, and who exercise them in the name of the regime;”
- “Human rights violators and those who suppress fundamental civil and political freedoms”;
- “Individuals specifically involved in the pursuit of Navalny and our organization.”
“We didn’t want to make this list public until we made the full dossier on them. But after its [Navalny’s] we knew we had to act, “Ashurkov told CNN.
Navalny was arrested on January 17, moments after arriving in Moscow, after months of treatment in Germany, after being poisoned in August 2020 by nervous agent Novichok.
He is currently in custody before a February 2 hearing, where a court will decide whether his sentence suspended for fraud in a 2014 embezzlement case should be converted into a prison due to what the Russian authorities say is a violation of his terms. suspended sentence.
The letter states that the eight selected individuals are of “particular priority”. They were discussed with Navalny shortly before he boarded the plane to travel back to Moscow, said Ashurkov.
Ashurkov said Navalny’s team plans to send the same request to the European Union and the UK government.
In an interview earlier this week with CNN, ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who served more than 10 years in a Russian prison after falling out with Putin for highlighting official corruption, also said the new United States government should take the global lead to ensure that your destiny does not fall on Navalny either.
Speaking of exile in London, Khodorkovsky said that personal sanctions should be imposed by Biden and others in the West on those closest to Putin, rather than broad sectoral sanctions.
Khodorkovsky said that targeting Putin’s entourage would be extremely painful for the Russian president and would affect the stability of his power.
CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed to this report.