European leaders treat Putin as an international terrorist and not as an interlocutor. This is the appeal of Alexey Navalny’s spokesman, Leonid Volkov, who in the next few hours will collect the Sakharov prize awarded to the Russian dissident currently in prison in Russia from the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Navalny’s current health conditions “are stable”, but the prison regime to which he is subjected is “extremely harsh isolation”, Volkov recalled, explaining that six new charges hang over his head, which could “triple the sentence of imprisonment of the dissident “.
Navalny Putin’s “personal prisoner”
Navalny is “a personal prisoner of Vladimir Putin” and his freedom depends only on the will of the Russian president, said the spokesman, underlining that his detention “has no legal justification”. To free him, the only solution is to “force Putin”, Volkov continued. The watchword, therefore, is “to put pressure”, precisely “where one can most can hurt Putin”, in other words sanction the closest circle of his collaborators. The organization led by Navalny has in fact published a list of 35 individuals who, according to activists, are closely linked to the Kremlin and who act as a figurehead for foreign current accounts in which Putin’s wealth is hidden.
Hit the Tsar to force him to negotiate
“Freeze those funds and Putin will deal,” Volkov ruled. The activist also used the European stage to warn Brussels “against Putin’s blackmail on Ukraine”, which according to Volkov “is only a threat to force the West to negotiate with the Kremlin under the threat of a bloodbath”. A proposal to be rejected decisively, preferring instead the choice of further sanctions, “which politically isolate Putin as much as possible”.
The European position
Tough EU stance. “With Moscow”, said the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, in her speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “We want good relations, but that depends primarily on Russia’s behavior. Our response to any further aggression,” continued Von Der Leyen, “can take the form of a robust increase and extension of existing sanctions and, of course, we are ready to take further unprecedented measures with serious consequences for Russia “.
“Above all”, concluded the president of the Commission, “I invite Russia to reduce tension to activate diplomatic channels”.
Source-tg24.sky.it