With its revelations, the foundation of imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny hits the Kremlin’s weak point, writes ‘s foreign correspondent Jyrki Saarikoski.
Travel and shameless luxury living on the French Riviera and elsewhere in the West.
Dropping huge sums on villas, luxury cars and yachts.
This is how Russia’s deputy defense minister has lived Timur Ivanov and his spouse Svetlana Ivanova. First during the years of the corona pandemic and now during Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
The allegations come from a jailed opposition leader To Alexei Navalny from the FBK foundation operating in the west. It has previously published revelations about the Kremlin elite. Video president Vladimir Putin more than a hundred million viewers have gathered from the palace.
Latest data leak announced by the foundation (you switch to another service) highlights the lavish lifestyle of Deputy Defense Minister Ivanov’s family. I told you about the announcement earlier Ilta-Sanomat (you switch to another service).
Although Russia’s most famous political prisoner, Navalnyi, is locked up in solitary confinement, he does not leave Putin and his regime alone.
The goal is to erode Russians’ trust in the country’s rulers and the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
According to Navalny’s foundation Deputy Minister of Defense Ivanov and his wife have also followed the opulent lifestyle typical of oligarchs at home.
Russian-style get-rich-quick has also been seen on social media. It increases the power and evidentiary force of the revelations.
In addition, the former profession of the spouse of the deputy defense minister, work as a television program host, has brought publicity. Svetlana Ivanova is also known as the party queen of Moscow’s social circles.
Ivanova’s son studies in London and her daughter in Paris. Based on information from Navalny’s foundation, Ivanova has been able to travel to Western Europe also during the war waged by Russia.
At the same time, fathers and sons of ordinary Russian families have been ordered to fight in Ukraine. Ordinary citizens have encountered the borders closed by the travel restrictions set by the European Union.
The contrast between the extravagance of the elite and the scarcity experienced by the military is stark. There is enough money for the luxuries of those in power, but Russian soldiers are sent to the trenches with insufficient equipment.
Deputy Defense Minister Ivanov’s position is also made difficult by the fact that he is responsible for the reconstruction of the destroyed cities of Ukraine.
The foundation’s report mentions destroyed Mariupol, whose theater ruins are now being dismantled. This has caused protests in Ukraine, as the goal of the project is seen to be the destruction of evidence of the massacre that took place in the theater.
Improvement of the cities conquered by Russia of course, after the destruction caused by the attack, it’s already ugly. The extravagance of the Kremlin elite makes the situation even more blatant.
Pictures of luxurious parties and fun trips make people angry when their own everyday life becomes more grim and young men are ordered to fight.
Navalny’s foundation thus strikes at the weak point of the Kremlin’s defense.
Despite the restrictions on the use of social media platforms set in Russia during the war, many Russians find pictures of Kremlin celebrities to look at. In addition, talk about the elite living at the expense of the nation spreads even without the help of the internet.
While Navalny’s foundation publishes revelations from the inner circle, the position of the opposition leader, who is languishing in prison, is becoming even more difficult.
On Monday, Navalnyi received an alarming message through his lawyers.
According to it, he has spent three months in a cramped isolation cell.
In Koppero, Navalnyi has had to squat for 16 hours a day on an iron chair, sitting or standing. This has made his back pain worse.
According to Navalny, the prison doctor only had five minutes for him.
According to Navalny, the doctor did not agree to tell what kind of medicine he had prescribed. Navalnyi says that he is worried after receiving injections, the composition of which he does not know.
46-year-old Alexei Navalny is Putin’s main political opponent. Navalny is serving an 11.5-year prison sentence for “treason” and “contempt of justice”.
The sentence has already been extended once during his imprisonment.
When also an opposition politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced earlier in the fall to a long prison sentence, the opportunities for the Kremlin’s opponents to operate within Russia have been suppressed to non-existent.