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According to Medusa, the decision was confirmed first to the American journalist Aaron Mate by the Amnesty International affiliate in the United Kingdom, and then to the Russian media by the division of the country and Eurasia.
In a letter, Mate said: “We can no longer consider Alexei Navaln a prisoner of conscience because he has spoken out against violence and discrimination in the past. He is not distancing himself from such statements.”
Alexander Artemiev, spokesman for Amnesty International’s Russia and Eurasia divisions, also confirmed that the phrase “prisoner of conscience” would no longer be used.
“Our law and policy department has been investigating Navaln’s comments since approximately 2005 and found that they incited hatred. However, we continue to demand his immediate release because he is being persecuted for purely political reasons,” Artemjev told Mediazona.
A spokesperson for the organization added that human rights activists “gave the impression that the requests to reconsider Navaln’s statements were part of a coordinated campaign to discredit him.”
Another source from Amnesty International itself spoke even more specifically, mentioning that “people from different countries involved in RT” were involved in the campaign. RT – The Kremlin propaganda media.
According to this source, at least two complaints cited a Twitter story created by RT columnist Katia Kazbek. The author, who is actually Ekaterina Dubovickaya, calls Navalna a “sworn nationalist and racist” on social media.
Amnesty International granted Navalns “prisoner of conscience” status on January 17, immediately after an activist who tried to poison him in August returned from Germany to Moscow.
Many independent journalists and commentators have resented the organization’s decision, saying that Amnesty International’s withdrawal only demonstrates Russia’s successful use of the West’s weapon of cancellation culture against the West itself.
Yes, A. Navalnas in the past called himself a nationalist and migrants: cockroaches and flies, but he hasn’t talked like that for some time. Furthermore, mere appearances do not mean that he is not imprisoned for political reasons and that he is not a “prisoner of conscience”.
Photo by Scanpix / Alexei Navaln
“And here is Amnesty in Russia’s smear campaign. It’s a sad day,” journalist Anne Applebaum wrote on Twitter.
“What a shame Amnesty is. This is a classic example of how an organization does not fulfill its main mission. Congratulations, the worst people in the Kremlin are very happy now,” added analyst and journalist Ben Judah.
“If this information is accurate, it is shocking and embarrassing. Is Navaln no longer a ‘prisoner of conscience’ because his views are now considered ‘hate speech’? I just forgot that woke up pacifists can be persecuted, “said Russian expert Mark Galeotti.
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