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Friday 02 October 2020
The case of the poisoned Kremlin critic Navalny outraged the whole world. But other members of the opposition are also harassed and literally harassed to death in Russia. A journalist from the group “Open Russia” now burns herself: Slavina reacts to the search of her apartment.
One day after authorities raided her home in Russia, opposition journalist Irina Slavina set herself on fire. He died after setting himself on fire in front of an office of the Interior Ministry in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, 400 kilometers east of Moscow. She had previously written on her Facebook page: “Hold the Russian Federation responsible for my death.”
The day before her death, Slavina said that the police had searched her home. Notebooks, her laptop and other electronic devices were confiscated, as well as her daughter’s laptop and her husband’s cell phone. She also searched for material from the opposition group “Open Russia”, which is funded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Slawina worked as editor-in-chief of the small news company Kosa Press. Members of the Russian opposition said Slavina had been under pressure from the authorities for a long time. “In recent years, he has been the subject of endless persecution by the authorities due to his activities for the opposition,” wrote politician Dmitri Gudkov on Instagram. “What a nightmare,” Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin tweeted. “The government breaks people mentally.”
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who allegedly narrowly escaped a poison attack by Russian leaders in September, also commented on the case on Twitter. He demanded that not only the security forces in Nizhny Novgorod, but also those who commissioned them, be held accountable for the harassment within the Russian government in Moscow.
EU summit condemns poison attack on Navalny
At their Brussels summit, the heads of state and government of the European Union decided to re-address the Navalny poisoning at their next summit on October 15-16. Then there could also be a joint response from the 27 Member States. Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons must first complete its investigations. “Then we will return to this issue in two weeks at the European Council.”
Merkel welcomed the fact that the heads of state and government had already unanimously condemned the poisoning. The joint final declaration states: “The use of a chemical weapon constitutes a serious violation of international law.” She calls on the Russian authorities to work fully with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in order to bring those responsible to justice.
Navalny collapsed on August 20 during a domestic flight in Russia. After an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, he was taken to Berlin for further treatment. He lay there in an artificial coma for weeks. According to the findings of a special Bundeswehr laboratory, he was poisoned with a Novichok war agent. Laboratories in France and Sweden also confirmed this.
