Draw up a ‘Navalny list’ to pressure Putin

The Times editorial condemns the “grim predictability” to the five year jail sentence handed down to opposition leader Alexei Navalny by a Russian court on July 18. The judgement against the blogger-turned-protest figure is viewed by many as politically motivated and another example of the Kremlin’s crackdown against opposition voices.

The daily continues that the court ruling against the activist, who was later released on bail pending the outcome of an appeal against the sentence on charges of embezzlement, was further proof that Russian President Vladimir Putin is radically misjudging the public mood among “an urban middle class impatient for change.” The daily adds –

The West can condemn the treatment of Mr Navalny as it has done before on behalf of the Pussy Riot performers, the imprisoned former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and many others. [...] But democratic change in Russia has to come from within: driven by an opposition that goes beyond metropolitan Moscow and reaches out to the disgruntled in the many relatively prosperous cities of the Russian Federation. It is time for the civic opposition of Russia to abandon its dilettantism, organise itself and find policy platforms that directly challenge the authority of Mr Putin’s United Russia party. [...] Just as Mr Navalny has been uncowed by his jail sentence, so too should the West stay firm. Russia deserves better governance.

For its part, Le Monde condemns the “sickening timidity” of the European Union —

[European states] say that they need Russia. This is perhaps the case with regard to energy, but it is not true of the diplomatic arena. Whether it be with regard to Syria or the drive to counter Iran’s nuclear programme, the Kremlin is not only unhelpful, it plays against European interests.

To compensate for a “lack of means to exert pressure” which appears to be the argument European states are clinging to, the French daily suggests establishing a “Navalny list” which would deny all of the Russian civil servants involved in the affair access to western countries. The list would function as “a warning” and could be drafted before the 2014 Winter Olympics that Russia is organising in Sochi.