MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st January, 2021) The Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK, labeled as a foreign agent by the Russian Ministry of Justice) established by Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny has sent a letter to US President Joe Biden urging him to impose sanctions on 35 Russia's top officials and businessmen, including those close to President Vladimir Putin, US media reported, citing a copy of the letter.
"The letter is addressed to the President of the United States -- the most powerful country. [The US] has a history of imposing sanctions on people who are involved in corruption. If anyone can do anything, it is the USA," FBK executive director, Vladimir Ashurkov, who signed the letter, told CNN on Saturday.
Ashurkov added that the FBK plans to submit the same request to the European Union and to the UK government.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post has published the letter which contained the Names of those Russian top officials and businessmen. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is the first in the list dubbed a "priority shortlist".
Other names include Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, billionaire Oleg Deripaska, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and others.
"We didn't want to make this list public until we did the full dossier on them. But after his [Navalny's] arrest we knew we had to act," Ashurkov told CNN.
Navalny was detained in Moscow on January 17 upon his arrival from Germany, where he had undergone months of treatment for alleged nerve agent poisoning. The blogger was subsequently placed in custody for 30 days for violating his probation terms for an earlier embezzlement conviction.
Navalny has two suspended convictions in relation to his role in a fraud case involving the French cosmetics brand, Yves Rocher, and embezzling funds of the Kirovles company in western Russia's Kirov region. He denies guilt in both cases and says both are politically motivated.
