[ad_1]
In an exclusive interview with the BNS, Volkov called on European countries to freeze regime funds because people close to Putin not only harm Russia but also corrupt the European political system by looting state money and spending it in the West.
L. Volkov, currently living in Vilnius, coordinates the regional network of political offices of A. Navalnas and compares his role with the role of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Last week, Russian police brought charges against him for inciting young people to participate in demonstrations. L. Volkov claims that these allegations are fictitious and unfounded.
– What will be your strategy after the imprisonment of Mr. Navaln yesterday?
– Strategy is a strategy, not a tactic, because it doesn’t depend on individual events, so it would be a bit strange to ask how it changes after an event that happened only once.
Our long-term strategy has always been to make Russia a European country based on the rule of law. This means getting rid of Vladimir Putin and his regime, ensuring a peaceful transfer of power, and becoming the greatest political force in the country to make this change inevitable.
This strategy has not changed so far and it certainly has not changed yesterday. I would say that what happened yesterday is part of a strategy.
When Alexei decided to return, realizing that he could be arrested and anticipating the possible consequences, he also acted on our strategy to show how corrupt and rotten the regime is, to help people learn more about the alternative to it and to attract more followers and supporters. And works. We are fully working on our strategy and will continue to do so.
Now that Alexei is in prison, he will naturally become a symbol of protest and attract a lot of attention. Our goal is to increase the number of followers, improve Alexei’s ratings and lower Putin’s ratings so that a change of government and change are inevitable.
– Last week, the Investigative Committee of Russia accused him of ignoring, as they claim, a call for protest and announced his search. How do you evaluate these accusations?
– One aspect of this accusation is extremely funny, but in reality this accusation of calling on minors to protest is a long public relations campaign.
This whole campaign is completely fictitious, because we do not target minors in particular, we target a wide audience on the Internet and inform them of what was happening with the case of Mr. Navaln, his poisoning, his investigations and everything else.
Of course, there are minors who follow the knowledge and who want to understand what is happening. I remember when I was a young boy, I followed the dramatic events of 1989 and 1991 because it was impossible not to follow them, the whole country did, they talked about these events and the whole country cared about them. It is very good that young people are concerned about the injustice that is happening in Russia. But we never address them precisely and we never highlight them.
Our movement is a popular movement: we invite people of all ages and socio-demographic groups, and polls show that, for example, at a rally on January 23 in Moscow, less than 5 percent. the participants were minors, which is even less than usual.
Again, this whole campaign is completely fictitious, but I also promised to say a funny aspect, the funny thing is that they accuse me of inviting minors to protest on the TikTok platform, even though I don’t even have an account there. .
Alexei Navalna
– Are you not afraid that Russia will try to use Interpol or other instruments to arrest you?
– This article of the Russian Penal Code is fictitious, it did not exist before and it appeared only a few months ago, and I am the first person in Russia to be tried for inciting minors to protest. This crime is not serious and, technically, such a minor crime can only be the subject of a national registry, so they do not even have a legitimate reason to go to Interpol.
Clearly, we all know and have seen that legitimacy is not very important to the Russian police and other institutions, so of course they could. And in the past we have seen Russia or China try to use Interpol to turn it into a weapon that could be used against political opponents, and they are doing the same with the FATF (Financial Action Group – BNS).
When Alexei Navaln was in a coma in Berlin, we saw how they used the Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. With this convention, they tried to use it to obtain information from Germany about the poisoning of A. Navaln, pretending that it was necessary to investigate the incident, but in reality they just wanted to squeeze out as much information as possible in order to lie better and pretend that A Navaln was not poisoned. .
Russia knows how to abuse these international tools, it has happened many times and I, of course, understand that it can also happen this time, but so far everything is fine, I feel safe in Lithuania and I am very grateful to the Lithuanian authorities. At least here, I’m safe.
So far, I have not applied for asylum, I do not intend to apply and I do not feel like a refugee. I am absolutely convinced that all the accusations made against me are simply fictitious.
viburnum
– What are your activities here and how will they change according to your strategy?
– My activity is not here, my activity there. I am the personnel director of Alexei Navaln’s regional network of political offices, responsible for 180 employees in 40 offices across Russia, from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, for all regional and local political campaigns in Russia. We won several campaigns last year in Novosibirsk, Tomsk and elsewhere, and now we are preparing for the Duma elections scheduled for September.
Our goal is to defeat Putin’s United Russia party in as many districts as possible. This is my business and frankly nothing has changed since I moved to Vilnius. My offices in Khabarovsk or elsewhere don’t really care if I look after them from Moscow or Vilnius. Finally, last year he taught us all about working remotely with Zoom.
On the other hand, with all the recent developments, international affairs have also contributed to the usual work of caring for the regional network and political campaigns. I am like Mr Navalno’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, because I have to communicate with international institutions, governments, I have recently addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I have contacts with the European Parliament. We must promote the process of personal sanctions against Putin’s closest allies. I went to Brussels every month before the quarantine, I hope to continue after the pandemic.
– What exactly are the reactions you expect from the EU and the US?
– Very simple. In a study of Putin’s palace, we revealed that Putin only cares about money, he is just a nasty gnome with a pot of gold. He had unlimited Russian resources, talent, money to achieve it all. Our research revealed that his dream is a huge palace with red and gold carpets. So the strategy should be to chase your money.
There is a lot of Putin money in Europe. Official Russian statistics show that more than 60 billion people leave Russia. The capital in US dollars and the unofficial figures are much higher. So at least tens, maybe hundreds of billions of Russian taxpayer money are being stolen, and for them people are buying houses and apartments in Mayfair (a luxury area of London), mansions in France or villas in Jurmala. This dirty money also corrupts European institutions.
If I am a Russian oligarch or deputy minister, I manage to steal several million euros and buy a house in Jurmala, then my next step will be to bribe a councilor, a local judge or a local policeman just because they would not ask the origin of my money, like what had done before in Russia. This is how corruption is exported.
Putin pays many European politicians. MEPs like Thierry Mariani from France or even Marine Le Pen go to Crimea and announce that the 2014 referendum was completely democratic and wonderfully held. The German politicians of the AfD party are ready to say whatever Putin tells them.
So Putin exports money to Europe and uses that money to corrupt and destroy European political institutions. The answer should be to focus on this money, hunt it down, seize the property of Putin’s closest friends, the oligarchs, investigate how money travels from Russia to the European political system, and cut these channels. This would serve not only Russia but also Europe.
[ad_2]
