DISINFO: The West is hysterical about interfering in Russia through the Navalny case
SUMMARY
The West is hysterical about interfering in Russia, going too far in its reaction about the situation of the opposition blogger Alexei Navalny. Anything that happens in Russia is covered by the West in a very specific and unilateral way. Western countries need any pretext to impose sanctions, and if there are none, they invent or create it. This time, Russia was subject to condemnation about the situation of a Russian citizen arrested under Moscow’s laws. Russia has every right [to act] in relation to what is stipulated in its own laws, and here is where we see the same international interference.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Alexei Navalny and the West.
Contrary to the claim, criticism on the handling of the Navalny case is not tantamount to interfering in Russia’s domestic affairs but a legitimate stance in regard to human rights and the rule of law in the country. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the charges against Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny are politically motivated and arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable. As a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, Russia is under the jurisdiction of the ECHR and forced to comply with its rulings.
It is not true that Western countries look for any pretext to impose sanctions on Russia and even resort to invent or create it, this is recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative. Russia has been subject to US and EU sanctions due to its violations of international law, including the illegal annexation of Crimea and the deliberate destabilisation of Ukraine. Six Russian individuals and one entity have been sanctioned for use of chemical weapons in an assassination attempt of Alexei Navalny. In the case of the US, sanctions on Russia were imposed over illicit actions such as election interference and other malicious cyber activities, human rights abuses, use of a chemical weapon, weapons proliferation and illicit trade with North Korea, among other reasons.
See other examples in our database, such as claims that the US interferes in Russian politics by posting the routes of pro-Navalny protests; that the US used the pandemic to interfere in the affairs of other countries like Belarus; that the US spreads anti-Russian attitudes by inventing the Skripal case, through the coup d’état in Ukraine and Navalny poisoning; that the Bundestag resolution on the victims of Nazism is interference in Russian internal affairs; or that in 2021, Russia will remain the perfect scapegoat.