THE KREMLIN PROJECT… WHEN CRIMINALS BE INVITED TO BE ELECTED.

“Anyone is welcomed with open arms!” How the Kremlin has created a political martyr? No one in Russia was surprised when Alexei Navalny will now be able to contest Moscow’s mayoral election in September. The charges relate to the time, back in 2009, when Navalny was employed by Nikita Belykh, the governor of Kirov, a city in the middle of Russia’s vast forest belt, to help develop the region’s lumber industry. Who is Alexei Navalny? Navalny is of Ukrainian descent. In 2000, Navalny joined the Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko", where he was a member of the Federal Political Council of the party. In 2002, he was elected to the regional council of the Moscow branch of Yabloko. Nikita Belykh the ex-leader of the Union of Right Forces, who has officially taken the post of Governor of the Kirov Region on December 8, 2008. Nikita Belykh declared before that he is not going to change his ideological views, but if he is approved for the post of Governor, he will leave his political career. “It is not a matter of political work. It is a matter of a region which is in a difficult situation, and needs smart management”, he stated. In September 2008 Belykh announced that he has resigned from his position and left the Union of Rightist Forces in connection with its likely upcoming merger with a couple of pro-Kremlin parties. But soon the governor was accusing Navalny of selling it off at absurdly low prices and profiting from the deal. Navalny helped set up a company to buy the lumber and sell it on to 100 or so companies. Alexei Navalny fled to the US, studied at Yale for a while, and then returned to Russia, hoping the fuss had blown over. It hadn’t. But Alexei Navalny was NOT forgotten! The purchases he had made in good faith where twisted to look like theft the same “crazy blueprint” used to keep the oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in prison – and last month a court in Kirov sentenced him to five years in jail. So what is about money? "Alexei Navalny has never hidden that former the Putin's opponent Boris Berezovsky gives him money for the struggle with Putin". But to universal astonishment, 24 hours after being hauled off in handcuffs, Navalny was set free pending appeal; Navalny will now be able to contest Moscow’s mayoral election in September 2013. Prosecutors say that detention before appeal is prohibited in the case of business crime, but they’ve never shown the slightest respect for the law before. No, President Putin is clearly worried that without Alexei Navalny, the mayoral election will look bogus; everyone knows the other opposition candidates are puppets. But there’s no risk of Alexei Navalny winning – the incumbent Sergei Sobyanin is polling over 50 per cent – Navalny is barely in double figures, so after the vote he can safely be jailed. But it’s still risky: if Navalny gets more than 10 per cent it will reinforce his status as a political prisoner. “Any way you look at it, the Kremlin has backed itself into a corner.” With his movie-star looks, Alexei Navalny is most appealing of Putin’s opponents. He’s prepared to go to jail for his ambitions to be next Presidential election in Russia. Navalny also shows a determination to win power. Alexei Navalny is trade about Moscow being swamped with Muslim immigrants has supporters, but it’s clearly a calculated pitch for the nationalist vote: the liberals alone will never get him elected. This is now Russia’s leaders emerge, by standing up to officialdom. Navalny could one day prove just as “intransigent and inconsitive to other people opinions “as his persecutors. Outspoken Putin opponents join forces in test run for presidential challenge. (Source: THE WEEK) Russian most opposition politician Alexei Navalny who sentenced in July 2013 for stealing $500,000. In comparison this matter after all now Navalny criticize the Kremlin officials for “archaic principles” of the management. It's ridiculous! Navalny's tone of his characterizes self as an inexperienced politician. Aleksei Navalny has been called the best hope for liberalization in Russia. Alexei Navalny has at various times called for deporting illegal immigrants and introducing a visa regime for the countries of Central Asia. Russian activists stand firm against Putin... only psychopaths always screaming “anyone but not Putin"! Some oligarchs especially Mikhail Prokhorov stands behind Navalny. It's crunch time "if you have enough of money you can to be the leader"! Prokhorov at a Christmas party for the Russian nouveau riche at the French Alpine resort of Courchevel in January 2007, he was arrested on suspicion of arranging prostitutes for his guests, according th the Mikhail Prokhorov’s Wikipedia page. Alexei Navalny has recruited the husband of one of the imprisoned Pussy Riot member to help him to win the Moscow mayoral election. Navalny is running for office in what he hopes will be rehearsal for a presidential challenge. His campaign has breathed fresh life into Russia’s moribund electoral politics. Russian prosecutors accused Alexei Navalny on Monday of illegally receiving foreign funding for his campaign to oust an ally of President Vladimir Putin as Moscow mayor in an election next month. Some analysts say reformers like Alexei Navalny is a threat to Russia's politics. Navalny a Racist? Engelina Tareyeva, who worked with Navalny when he was a member of the liberal Yabloko party before he was expelled in 2007, has accused him of routinely using racial slurs and basing his relations with people on their ethnicity. "I consider Aleksei Navalny the most dangerous man in Russia," Tareyeva has written. "You don't have to be a genius to understand that the most horrific thing that could happen in our country would be the nationalists coming to power." Navalny has flatly rejected Tareyeva's charges. Moreover, Navalny has rejected the widespread notion that discussing issues important to ethnic Russians will necessarily lead to neo-Nazism. In an interview with RFE/RL in January, Navalny laid out the main points of the so-called nationalist agenda, including combating illegal immigration and ethnically based organized-crime groups; protecting ethnic Russians abroad; and bringing order to the North Caucasus, which he has called a de facto lawless "off-shore zone." With opinion polls giving Navalny up to 15 percent support, compared to Sobyanin's 75 percent, the white-haired Kremlin ally is strong favorite to win. But Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who has caught the mood of the urban youth, believes he might have a chance of victory if Sobyanin fails to secure a simple majority in the first round. The funding allegations were made by the nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic party, which often backs Putin's policies. Checks have confirmed information about foreign funding of A. Navalny's election campaign," the Prosecutor General's office said in a statement, adding that more than 300 foreign individuals or legal entities had contributed to his funding. David Satter, advisor to Radio Liberty and fellow of the Hudson Institute and John Hopkins University, writes for CNN that Russia is playing a cat and mouse game with anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny. Satter writes that in his blog, Navalny provided detailed reports on corruption in state-controlled companies, including the theft of $4 billion from the state-owned pipeline company Transneft. Political scientist Sergey Mikheyev: "Refusal of debate – manifestation of weakness of Navalny" . Alexey Navalny refused further participation in debate of candidates in Mayors of Moscow. Before it sharply criticized the acting mayor that that doesn't participate in televised debates. Political scientist Sergey Mikheyev makes comments. – I think that the main cause of failure from debate that Navalny is simply weak in the Moscow city subject. It builds political career on the general oppositional slogans of emotional character, in every possible way abusing the power. He doesn’t own concrete subjects of management of the megalopolis, it is obvious. Elections of the Mayor of Moscow are more necessary to it for his political promotion. I am far from thought that Navalny suddenly decided to deal with the Moscow city problems and knows recipes of their decision. It is very improbable. He doesn’t know the Moscow problems and doesn’t understand them. (Source: RUfacts) Police use chainsaw to storm flat and seize anti-Kremlin activists. Police broke into a Moscow flat and seized allegedly illegal campaign materials supporting the leading opposition candidate Alexei Navalny, ahead of his bid for the city’s mayorality. After several hours four people arrested to be pro-Navalny activists. Navalny called for an investigation into whether Sobyanin and his daughter, Anna, were involved in corruption in connection with a $3 million flat and a furniture business in St Petersburg. Then on Tuesday [15.8.2013] evening a police team turned up at the central Moscow flat of Vasily Drovetsky, a supporter of Navalny’s campaign. According to Interior ministry officials the occupants refused to answer the door and police broke in after smoke appeared from one of the windows. Inside they found about two tonnes of campaign publications, more than Navalny has officially declared; a source at the Moscow Central Electoral Commission told the RIA Novosti news agency. A poll this week by the All-Russia Centre for the Study of Public Opinion put Sobyanin in front with about 53 per cent of public support, trailed by Navalny with 8 per cent. A run off will happen Sergei Sobyanin fails to secure more than half of the vote at the first time of asking. Levada-Centre revealed that 40 per cent of Muscovites expected the mayoral campaign to be “dirty, featuring slander, falsification, [and] abuse of administrative resources.” The show must go on… Thank to both of you Vladimir Putin and Alexei Navalny!” (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) Mr Navalny’s politically motivated conviction is still in place, but he has been released, pending an appeal, and allowed, at least for now, to run in the mayoral election in Moscow. The harsh sentence gave him the dignity of a martyr. His miraculous release 24 hours later gave him the laurels of a hero. There is no doubt that in both cases the instructions came directly from Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. Not even the savviest campaign manager could have done as much for him. Mr Navalny seemed a suitable opponent. He was recognised by the opposition as a figure of standing, but lacked the qualities for a largely managerial job. Thus he stood no chance of beating the popular Mr Sobyanin. Mr Navalny’s defeat was supposed to demoralise the opposition and reduce his political prestige in jail. Navalny's release makes the situation less predictable. Mr Navalny’s supporters say the pending sentence forces the mayoral election into a vote against political persecution. If Mr Navalny does well putting him back in jail may be harder politically. The election campaign has also boosted the political profile of Mr Sobyanin beyond what many siloviki may consider comfortable. A solid victory in a relatively straight election would turn him into a powerful force. This could lead to a deeper split within the elite ahead of the 2018 presidential elections. Given Mr Putin’s grip over the Kremlin, the fact that politics are emerging first at the municipal and regional level makes sense. The decisive battles in the late 1980s were fought not within the Kremlin, but between the Kremlin and the republics. By trying to avoid the scenario that led to the end of Soviet rule, Mr Putin seems to have brought it a step closer. (Source: THE ECONOMIST). EDITORIAL BLOGGER