-
Navalny speaks up

Alexander Navalny, Russia’s foremost opposition leader, has been giving a flurry of interviews since surviving an apparent attempt to kill him with a nerve agent in an operation that is assumed to have been ordered by Vladimir Putin – despite denials from the Kremlin.
Navalny runs a network of anti-corruption activists and is said to be the critic President Putin fears most. He is still recovering in Germany after falling ill on a flight to Moscow from Siberia on 20 August. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing and he was briefly treated in a hospital in Omsk before being evacuated to Berlin after a standoff between his family and Russian doctors.
Several European laboratories have since confirmed that he was poisoned with a nerve agent from the novichok group, the type of chemical used against the former intelligence agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in the UK in 2018. Earlier this month the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) also concluded that novichok had been used.
The German chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited Navalny in a Berlin hospital, said he was “meant to be silenced.” Merkel, however, has played down the possibility of halting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.
But Navalny’s determination was partially rewarded last week by the imposition of sanctions by the EU, targeting Putin’s inner circle. The assets of Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the FSB, the successor to the Soviet KGB, will be frozen, and he will face a travel ban, along with Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy chief of staff in Putin’s administration. Four other senior officials will also be targeted. The UK has also imposed sanctions on the same officials.
“Bortnikov …..must have come up with an order calling for the application of ‘active measures’, with Putin signing off on it,” Navalny said in one interview. He is convinced that the reason for his attempted murder was venturing beyond Moscow to Siberia, where he was campaigning against Putin’s ruling United Russia Party.
This is familiar territory for Putin, a KGB veteran who ran the FSB in the late 1990s before becoming Russia’s prime minister and president. Following the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 with a radioactive cup of tea, Tony Blair’s government severed all cooperation.
Moscow has strenuously denied any involvement and dismissed claims it targeted Navalny as “absurd”. Russian officials have suggested variously that western intelligence agencies orchestrated the poisoning, Navalny poisoned himself, or that he was not poisoned at all.
In his public statements –designed to protect himself by raising his profile before he returns home – Navalny has insisted that Putin “enjoyed” using poison as a means to silence dissenting voices. The Russian president was using chemical weapons to “both kill me and, you know, terrify others”, he said.
In yet another interview he said that EU action was good, but that his main goal was to prevent corrupt members of Russia’s elite from smuggling their ill-gotten gains to the West. “As for sanctions or blacklists, my position has always been that if developed countries want to help Russia and its citizens and themselves, they should put a roadblock in the path of dirty money leaving Russia. You do not need those …people – those people who invented novichok or used it as a weapon – to block this flow of money that is stolen from our citizens.”
Navalny’s “viral videos have done more than anything to expose the luxurious lifestyles of the Kremlin’s elite,” in the words of one veteran Russia-watcher.
Navalny was also mentioned the other day by a presumably well-informed source - the new head of Britain’s domestic security service, MI5. Ken McCallum revealed in a rare media briefing that the UK is facing a “nasty mix” of national security threats, from hostile state activity by both Russia and China to fast-growing right-wing terrorism – although jihadist plots form the bulk of investigations.
Britain faced threats “up to and including assassinations, as the Navalny case reminds us; threats to our economy, our academic research, our infrastructure and, much discussed, threats to our democracy,” he said. In July the UK accused Russia of trying to steal coronavirus secrets by hacking into research labs in the UK, Canada and the US.
McCallum’s remarks came after UK spy agencies were criticised for failing to take the threat from states like Russia seriously enough. Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee accused MI5 and others of “taking their eye off the ball” and failing to scrutinise Moscow’s attempts to influence UK elections. The director-general said MI5 had investigated the possibility of Russia interfering in the 2016 Brexit referendum and not found anything of “significance”. He acknowledged, however, that there were “questions to be posed” about whether British agencies had dedicated enough resources to the threat from Moscow in the early 2000s. “The Russians did not create the things that divide us — we did that.”
Looking to the future, McCallum also said ominously: “You might think in terms of the Russian intelligence services providing bursts of bad weather, while China is changing the climate.”
IAN BLACK
You May Also Like
Popular Posts
Caricature
BENEFIT Sponsors BuildHer...
- April 23, 2025
BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
BENEFIT’s Chief Executive Mr. Abdulwahed AlJanahi, commented: “Our support for this educational hackathon reflects our long-term strategic vision to nurture the talents of emerging national youth and empower the next generation of accomplished female leaders in technology. By fostering creativity and innovation, we aim to contribute meaningfully to Bahrain’s comprehensive development goals and align with the aspirations outlined in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030—an ambition in which BENEFIT plays a central role.”
Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
Hanan Abdulla Hasan, Senior Manager, PR & Communication at BENEFIT, said: “We are honoured to collaborate with RUW in supporting this remarkable technology-focused event. It highlights our commitment to social responsibility, and our ongoing efforts to enhance the digital and innovation capabilities of young Bahraini women and foster their ability to harness technological tools in the service of a smarter, more sustainable future.”
For his part, Dr. Humam ElAgha, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at the University, said: “BuildHer CityHack 2025 embodies our hands-on approach to education. By tackling real-world problems through creative thinking and sustainable solutions, we're preparing women to thrive in the knowledge economy – a cornerstone of the University's vision.”
opinion
Report
ads
Newsletter
Subscribe to our mailing list to get the new updates!