Russian Politics

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law allowing him to potentially hold onto power until 2036, a move that formalizes constitutional changes endorsed in a vote last year.

Putin, who turns 69 this year, is currently serving his fourth presidential term, set to end in 2024. The new legislation, announced on Monday, could allow him to serve two more six-year terms, should he choose to stand for and win reelection both times.

Alexei Navalny has started a hunger strike in prison, according to his own statement. "I have gone on hunger strike so that the law is respected and a doctor of my choice is allowed to visit me," Navalny shared on Instagram. The 44-year-old says he suffers from severe back pain that radiates to his right leg, where it causes paralysis. Doctors and his lawyers fear that he could lose the leg.

His associates had also recently expressed concern about his health. "I am now lying hungry, but still with both legs," said Navalny in the article, which was published via his lawyers. He has the right to a doctor and medication, but is receiving neither.

The Russian sovereign wealth fund (RDIF) has concluded another agreement for the production of the Corona vaccine Sputnik V in India. The agreement with the company Stelis from the Indian pharmaceutical group Strides provides for the production of at least 200 million doses of the vaccine from the third quarter of 2021, as the sovereign wealth fund announced on Friday. In November, RDIF had already signed an agreement with Indian group Hetero for 100 million doses annually.

In contrast to dozens of other countries, the Russian vaccine has not yet been approved in India, where clinical trials are still underway. At the same time, Moscow is counting on broadening the production of the vaccine due to the high international demand in the pandemic.

Around one and a half months after an internationally heavily criticised court ruling, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been taken to a Russian prison camp. He is being held in the Vladimir region about 100 kilometres east of Moscow, Navalny wrote on Instagram. Although he believes the numerous media reports about torture in the camp, he has so far not been able to observe any violence, the 44-year-old wrote. He himself is under constant surveillance, with cameras everywhere. "But if you take it with humour, it is possible to live."

Russian rights group The Russian LGBT Network has come forward saying that Russia has sent two gay men, who fled to Russia to escape torture, have been returned to Chechnya.

The group said that the men are in "mortal danger".

Reports say the pair were forcibly returned to Chechen authorities.

Sergei Maximishin, the deputy chief physician at the clinic in Omsk, Siberia, has died "suddenly" at the age of 55. The hospital's administration said so "with regret" in an official statement, U.S. broadcaster CNN reported. No details were given on the cause of death.

The hospital treated Alexei Navalny last summer immediately after he was poisoned. The Kremlin critic had collapsed on a flight from Tomsk, Siberia, to Moscow in late August. Initially, he was then treated at the hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing of the plane. Two days later, still in a coma, he was taken to Berlin's Charité University Hospital for treatment.

Around the trial of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, Russian security forces have again taken massive action against demonstrators in several cities. According to human rights activists, a total of almost 1,400 people were arrested. Supporters of the most important Putin opponent called for demonstrations immediately after the verdict was announced. According to the non-governmental organization OVD-Info, the police arrested 1116 protesters in Moscow alone, and 246 in St. Petersburg.

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been sentenced to serve 3,5 years in a penal colony for violating his probation rules after leaving Russia for medical treatment in Germany following his poisoning.

Multiple landmarks in Moscow such as the Red Square had previously been blocked off by police in expectation of the verdict.

Seven metro stations have been closed amidst pro Navalny protests in Moscow that demand the release of the opposition leader from prison. The announcement of the public transportation services stated that this has been done at the request of the police. In addition, several streets near the Kremlin have been closed.

In raids against relatives and associates of the imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, his brother was among those arrested. Oleg Navalny was initially detained for 48 hours, Navalny's associate Ivan Zhdanov announced on Twitter. The reason given was a violation of Corona hygiene regulations, Navalny's team wrote on Telegram. Lawyer Lyubov Sobol, a close confidant and associate of Alexei Navalny, and an employee of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation were also detained, he added.

Hundreds of people were detained across Russia on Saturday as police used force to break up rallies in cities across the country where protesters demanded Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's release. Among the arrested was Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's wife.

Russian authorities had warned people to stay away from the protests, claiming they risked catching the coronavirus and prosecution and possible jail time for attending an unauthorized event.

Russian authorities are warning social networks, especially the video platform TikTok, popular with young people, to stop advertising for jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

"We request that you immediately take comprehensive measures to prevent the dissemination of such unlawful information on the TikTok platform," reads a statement from telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor.

Specifically, the authority refers to calls disseminated via TikTok to participate in a demonstration for Kremlin critic Navalny that had been announced for Saturday but had not been approved.

Alexei Navalny's team on Tuesday released a two-hour video featuring details of a luxurious property on Russia's southern Black Sea coast purportedly belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The video, and a blog post, claim Putin's property cost €1.1 billion and was paid for "with the largest bribe in history."

The film was produced while Navalny was still in Germany, where he was recovering from an attack with the nerve agent Novichok in August.

Multiple European leaders, including German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and European Council President Charles Michel, have demanded Alexei Navalny's immediate release on Monday.

“Russia is bound by its own constitution and by international obligations to the principle of the rule of law and to the protection of civil rights,” Maas said in a statement. “These principles must, of course, be applied to Alexei Navalny as well. He should be released immediately.”

Russian opposition leader and Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been arrested upon his arrival in his homeland Russia. A plane of the Russian company Pobeda with the number DP 936 had previously landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport in the northwest of the capital.

The Russian prison service has ordered Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to report in person to the authority's office. Should he return to Russia after the deadline, he said, he would face imprisonment. The FSIN prison authority announced this on Monday.

Navalny was released from the hospital on Sept. 20 and has been symptom-free since Oct. 12, the statement said, citing a report in The Lancet journal. Therefore, Navalny had to report to the scene, according to the parole conditions of a prison sentence to which Navalny was sentenced in 2014.

Putin's stated that if Russian special services had wanted to kill opposition politician Alexey Navalny, they would have "finished it" in response to a question at his annual press conference following an investigation by the investigative group Bellingcat and CNN, published Monday, which uncovered evidence that Russia's Federal Security Service (the FSB) formed an elite team specializing in nerve agents that trailed Navalny for years.

According to reports masked uniformed security forces raided the Moscow offices of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Authorities charged one of his key aides with contempt of court. FBK director and Navalny’s lawyer Ivan Zhdanov tweeted that "I’m being told these are bailiffs looking for 29 million rubles ($375,000) as part of enforcement proceedings".

In a new decree, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to try to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement to fight climate change.

However, all measures need to ensure that Russia can show strong economic development. but stressed that any action must be balanced with the need to ensure strong economic development.

The Russian chair of the upper-house Federation Council’s Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, Andrey Klishas, has stated that the new legislation “expands the timeframe of immunity guarantees for a president who stops exercising their powers,” The newly proposed bill also grants both chambers of the Russian parliament the power to strip presidents of immunity by a two-thirds majority within three months if they are accused of high treason or other felonies. Both pieces of legislation are part of constitutional reforms, which Russians approved in a nationwide vote this summer, that pave the way for Putin to extend his rule until 2036 after his current term ends in 2024.