New EU and US sanctions have been levied against Vladimir Putin’s daughters as the West moves to punish Russia even harder for its invasion of Ukraine. The Russian president’s closest family members have been added to an already lengthy list of limitations. While Western allies exert pressure on Putin from the outside, the Russian president is doing all in his power to suppress internal resistance to his invasion. Thousands of protestors have been detained by police across Russia, and the Kremlin has tightened restrictions on the country’s media.
Yuri Felshtinsky, a Russian academic and Putin foe, told The Sun in February that Putin fears being assassinated as Libyan tyrant Colonel Gaddafi.
According to reports, he “obsessively” viewed images of Colonel Gaddafi being brutally murdered after being besieged by a crowd in 2011.
Mr. Felshtinsky contended that in order to avoid his downfall, Putin will have to resort to more autocratic means.
“He’s astute enough to see that his form of governance cannot function under normal circumstances.” He’s not a believer in ideals.
“He realises he has no chance of survival unless he continues to oppress.”
“The lesson that Putin will have learned from the recent events is that he has to exert greater control and repression.” And that’s exactly what we’ll see.”
Mr Felshtinsky is a distinguished scholar who also assisted Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in fleeing to the United Kingdom, where he was eventually assassinated, most likely by Russian FSB operatives, according to an investigation into his death.
He believes a similar fate awaits Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most renowned opposition activist, who was sentenced to nine additional years in prison earlier this year after being found guilty of large-scale fraud and contempt by a Russian court.
Mr Navalny has pleaded not guilty to the newest criminal charge levelled against him, claiming that it is politically motivated.
Following his imprisonment, he tweeted a phrase from the US television show The Wire.
“Nine years,” he said. ‘You only do two days,’ as the characters in my favourite TV show The Wire used to say. That’s when you go in and when you leave.’
