Moscow 17 August : Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has called on the West to impose more severe sanctions on Russian oligarchs as Russia’s war against Ukraine is not stopping. “Let us never forget that sanctions are required to make the aggressor end the conflict.To pressure him.There are complex solutions to this, such as the embargo on gas and oil.But there are also simple options: personal sanctions.” the news agency dpa quoted Navalny as declaring in an appeal to the prison where he is currently serving a long sentence.
“They don’t need anything other than the will of the political.”
In a string of tweets Navalny took issue with the fact that even though the CEO of the state-owned Rosneft, Igor Sechin, is on an EU sanctions list but the head of Gazprom, the world’s largest energy company Gazprom, Alexei Miller, is not.
Billionaire Roman Abramovich, a former English football club Chelsea FC, was not included on the US sanctions list for instance, he said.
Of the 200 individuals listed as the wealthiest Russians according to Forbes magazine, only 25% are listed on Western sanctions lists, Navalny said.
Navalny is currently serving a 9-year sentence in prison in the penal colony in which he was sentenced for the alleged perpetration of fraud.
The Russian judiciary is widely viewed as being ruled by the Kremlin and has been criticized for its arbitrarily ruled decisions by human rights advocates.
The dissident is seen as a political prisoner with his imprisonment criticized as retribution for his constant protests of the Russian authorities.
Navalny barely escaped a plot to inflict poison on the man with the chemical agent Novichok in August 2020.
For this, he blames the president Vladimir Putin.
