NOURNEWS- Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny had an extra 19 years in a maximum security penal colony added to his jail term on Friday in a criminal case that he said was designed to cow the Russian people into political submission. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic critic, is already serving sentences totaling 11-1/2 years on fraud and other charges that he says are also bogus. His political movement has been outlawed and declared "extremist".
Navalny said in a statement on social media released via his lawyers and supporters that he was facing a life sentence behind bars unless the current authorities fell first. "Nineteen years in a maximum-security penal colony. The number does not matter. I understand perfectly well that, like many political prisoners, I am serving a life sentence. Where the life sentence is measured by the length of my life or the length of the life of this regime," said Navalny. "The sentencing number is not for me. It's for you. You, not me, are being frightened and deprived of the will to resist. You are being forced to surrender your Russia without a fight to the gang of traitors, thieves and scoundrels who have seized power. Putin must not achieve his goal. Do not lose the will to resist."
As it is obvious from the above-mentioned sentences, Navalny is a pro-Western political leader whom has always called for massive protests, riots and rebellion against the government of Russia. The Western countries track record is a factual testimony of their interference and destructive operations inside the independent countries such as Russia and our own country, the West has always stationed pro-western politics inside other countries to beat the drum of nationalism as a tool to aggravate the people against their own governments.
It's noteworthy to point out the West’s failed strategy in the last fall for tearing apart the nation of Iran was similar to Navalny’s doings in Russia.
Navalny was arrested in January 2021 after a hospital stay in Germany, where he was being treated for poisoning. Western countries and Navalny himself blamed Russia for the poisoning, a claim the Kremlin denies. He was later handed a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for violating the terms of his probation in a previous politically motivated case.
He was subsequently sentenced to nine years in prison in March 2022 after being convicted on fraud charges in a trial derided by him and the West as politically-motivated.
Navalny has forgotten to mention the reasons behind his given sentences in his published heroism statements in social medias, Russian authorities have cast him and his supporters as subversives determined to destabilize Russia with backing from the west. Many of Navalny’s allies have fled rather than face restrictions or jail at home.
But of course, Navalny has always been a great advocate and a political instrument for the White house to use against the Kremlin. So, it is no surprise that the US has sharply rebuffed Russia on Friday after Navalny was sentenced to additional jail time on "unfounded charges of so-called 'extremism.'"
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the latest court ruling against Alexey Navalny represents "an unjust conclusion to an unjust trial." "For years, the Kremlin has attempted to silence Navalny and prevent his calls for transparency and accountability from reaching the Russian people. By conducting this latest trial in secret and limiting his lawyers’ access to purported evidence, Russian authorities illustrated yet again both the base lessness of their case and the lack of due process afforded to those who dare to criticize the regime," he said in a statement.
"The United States strongly condemns Russia’s continued detention of Navalny, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and the more than 500 other designated political prisoners Russia holds. We will continue to follow their cases closely and advocate for the release of all unjustly detained persons," he added.
The EU has also condemned what it called another politically motivated ruling and called for Navalny's immediate release.
"His abuse shows Russia's complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted.
The Western countries have no problem to interfere in domestic and internal situations of a foreign country such as Russia when it concerns a Pro Western advocate and critic in the name of human rights and justice.
But how have they reacted to other similar situations and sentences against other non-pro-western advocates?
A lot of reports are being published about Americans demand and threats against Pakistan for removing Imran Khan, the ex-prime minister of Pakistan and an anti US politician.
According to the published reports, the US state department encouraged the Pakistani government in a March 7, 2022, meeting to remove Imran Khan as prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
One month after the meeting with U.S. officials documented in the leaked Pakistani government document, a no-confidence vote was held in Parliament, leading to Khan’s removal from power. The vote is believed to have been organized with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military. Since that time, Khan and his supporters have been engaged in a struggle with the military and its civilian allies, whom Khan claims engineered his removal from power at the request of the U.S.
The document, labeled “Secret,” includes an account of the meeting between State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, and Asad Majeed Khan, who at the time was Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S.
The diplomatic meeting came two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which launched as Khan was on route to Moscow, a visit that infuriated Washington.
The day before the meeting, Khan addressed a rally and responded directly to European calls that Pakistan rally behind Ukraine. “Are we your slaves?” Khan thundered to the crowd. “What do you think of us? That we are your slaves and that we will do whatever you ask of us?” he asked. “We are friends of Russia, and we are also friends of the United States. We are friends of China and Europe. We are not part of any alliance.”
In the meeting, according to the document, Lu spoke in forthright terms about Washington’s displeasure with Pakistan’s stance in the conflict. The document quotes Lu saying that “people here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position (on Ukraine), if such a position is even possible. It does not seem such a neutral stand to us.”
Lu then bluntly raises the issue of a no-confidence vote: “I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister,” Lu said, according to the document. “Otherwise,” he continued, “I think it will be tough going ahead.”
Lu warned that if the situation wasn’t resolved, Pakistan would be marginalized by its Western allies. “I cannot tell how this will be seen by Europe, but I suspect their reaction will be similar,” Lu said, adding that Khan could face “isolation” by Europe and the U.S. should he remain in office.
Long story short, Islamabad gave in to the Americans’ direct threat and displeasure in regard to Imran Khan’s being the prime minister of Pakistan and shortly after this meeting he was accused of “Foreign conspiracy” and relieved of his duties and position as the prime minister of Pakistan.
We can say for certain that Imran Khan’s US-defying policies and Americans direct demand of Islamabad in regard to him, has led to his downfall and lastly his arrest and rise of wild accusations such as terrorism, murder and wide corruption and has been imprisoned.
The White House had no problem to directly interfere in Pakistan’s internal matter and political sphere when Donald Lu directly threatened Pakistan and demanded Imran Khan to be relieved of his duties.
But when a spokesperson of the state department of the US was asked about the legal troubles of the former prime minister and a known critic of the US and its unilateralism, Matthew Miller said in a press briefing on Monday: "We believe that is an internal matter for Pakistan," State Department spokesperson. At times, there are cases around the world that are so obviously unfounded that the United States believes it should say something about the matter. We have not made that determination here."
If you want the support of the White House, then you must bend the knee in front of the unilateralism empire of the US. Washington has no problem to interfere in the internal political, economical and other domestic areas of any other foreign country as long as it serves its own goals and agendas.
The US was quick to accuse Russia’s court ruling against a pro westerner unjust, while ignoring the situation of a US-defying politician who has been imprisoned on baseless accusations on the White houses’ direct demands while saying it's Pakistan’s internal matter.
So, what is it? If Imran Khan situation is Pakistan’s internal matter, why Navalny’s ruling is not Russia’s? Human right is merely a political tool for the US and its allies to interfere in other countries internal sphere while protecting their own agents while trying to control the opinion of the world towards the targeted countries.
BY: Homayoun Barkhor
NOURNEWS