Free Republic

Vladimir Putin's fierce rival and critic Alexei Navalny has died, according to the prison service. The Russian opposition leader, who was the most prominent and persistent domestic foe of President Vladimir Putin, had been serving a 19-year sentence on an extremism conviction. He had been incarcerated in central Russia’s Vladimir region, 140 miles east of Moscow. Navalny has been behind bars in Russia since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Before his arrest, he campaigned against official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests.

Twitter: Our sources report: #Lukashenko agreed to deploy 120K soldiers during November-February. (Russia) undertakes to supply 100K mobilized soldiers in addition. Lukashenko is preparing for a full-scale war. The West must issue an ultimatum he cannot refuse

The 44-year-old activist is well known nationally for his reports on the corruption that has flourished under President Vladimir Putin’s government. His wide support puts the Kremlin in a strategic bind — risking more protests and criticism from the West if it keeps him in custody but apparently unwilling to back down by letting him go free. Protests erupted in dozens of cities [90] across Russia on Saturday to demand the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent foe. Police arrested more than 3,000 people, some of whom took to the streets in temperatures as frigid as...

LABOR may have finally bounced off rock bottom but Australia's oldest political party and its leader are still facing a historic loss of public confidence and electoral failure. A three-point rise in the Newspoll primary vote for the ALP has avoided the unthinkable for the Gillard government of going to 25 per cent or below to have less support than the combined vote for the Greens and various odds and sods, but the broader view of this survey of public opinion about Labor - as well as the personal standing of Julia Gillard - is devastating. The electorate has not...

Political Disloyalty by Ari Bussel Israel is embroiled in a new political affair. A ranking member of the Opposition, former Minister Haim Ramon, sat at a restaurant in a hotel along with a ranking member of the Palestinian Authority (“PA”). A diner sitting at the next table, about two feet away, was astonished to hear the discussion. Ramon allegedly said he is acting on behalf of President Peres and others, and the PA should reject any offer by the current government because his party, Kadima, will give the PA much more once they return to power. In short, sell one’s...

CARACAS, Venezuela – A leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez has decided to seek political asylum abroad rather than face a corruption charge in a trial he says would be stacked against him, an ally said Monday. Opposition leader Manuel Rosales, who went into hiding three weeks ago, decided not to appear in court Monday because the case against him is being used for "political persecution," said Omar Barboza, who heads Rosales' political party. "He won't present himself before a court that's been turned into a political tool," Barboza told reporters. "When there's a state of law in Venezuela, Manuel...

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe is now run by a "military junta", the country's opposition leader charged on Tuesday, vowing not to accept victory for Robert Mugabe in a presidential run-off later this month. There had been a "de facto coup d'etat" following the first round of the election in March, Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters, with a campaign of violence unleashed throughout the country. "This country is effectively now run by a military junta," the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader said. "As a people we have been exposed to state-sponsored brutality." With the UN Security Council prepared for a special...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Police have detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after his convoy was stopped at a roadblock, an opposition party official said Wednesday. Tsvangirai and a group of about 14 party officials were being detained at a police station in Lupane, north of Bulawayo, spokesman George Sibotshiwe said. No charges have been put to them, he said. Comment from police was not immediately available. Tsvangirai had been campaigning in the area ahead of a presidential runoff on June 27 against President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai claims he won the first round outright, and that official results released May 2 showing...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader insisted Tuesday that he has won presidential elections outright and denied that his advisers were involved in talks to allow President Robert Mugabe a graceful exit. Morgan Tsvangirai told his first news conference since Saturday's elections that he was waiting for an official announcement of election results before he would enter any discussions. "Our country is on a precipice, on a cliff edge," he said. A businessman close to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, or ZEC, and a lawyer close to the opposition said earlier that aides of Mugabe and Tsvangirai were discussing how...

CAIRO, Egypt - A top U.S. Democratic congressman met a leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed opposition group, during a recent visit to the country, the Islamic fundamentalist group and U.S. officials said Saturday. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record) met with the Muslim Brotherhood's parliament leader, Mohammed Saad el-Katatni, twice on Thursday — once at the parliament building and then at the home of the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said Brotherhood spokesman Hamdi Hassan. U.S. Embassy spokesman John Berry would only confirm that Hoyer, who represents Maryland, met with el-Katatni at U.S. Ambassador Francis...

TEHRAN, Jan 31 (AFP) - Ezzatollah Sahabi, a 77-year-old senior opposition leader freed from prison last year, dared Iran's powerful conservative clerics Friday to execute him if he was a true threat to the Islamic republic. "If you belief that I'm so harmful for the country, the people, Islam and the revolution, then execute me, because in any case there is another world where we will all be judged," Sahabi wrote in an open letter asking for support from reformist President Mohammad Khatami, Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karrubi and justice chief Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. Sahabi, a senior leader of the outlawed...