Human Rights First Condemns Navalny Sentencing

Human Rights First’s Senior Advisor for Human Rights Accountability Vladimir Kara-Murza released the following statement in response to the Russian government’s sentencing of anti-corruption campaigner and opposition leader Alexei Navalny:

“Alexei Navalny committed no crime and must be released immediately. Every dictator’s biggest fear is of his own people — and Vladimir Putin is no exception. As tens of thousands of Russians across the country continue to protest against corruption and abuse of power, the Kremlin found nothing better to do than to imprison the opposition leader. As for those who jailed him, they will soon discover that no dictatorship, in the end, can overcome a truly popular movement. As Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, once said, ‘You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can’t sit on it for long.’”

Kara-Murza recently wrote on what Navalny’s arrest means for Russia’s future in a Washington Post opinion piece entitled “Alexei Navalny may be in jail, but he’s helping to give birth to a new Russia.”