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Russian police raided the Moscow offices of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's group on Wednesday and came to search several other properties, including a flat where his wife was, as the country's media watchdog said it would fine social media platforms for spreading protest calls.
The police searches come after tens of thousands of Navalny's supporters took to the streets on Saturday to call on the Kremlin to release him from jail where he is serving a 30-day stint for alleged parole violations that he denies.
<p>Police had said the protests were illegal and detained close to 4,000 people. More than a dozen criminal cases have been opened. Navalny's allies plan to hold another rally this Sunday.</p><p>Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, said police appeared to be conducting the searches as part of an investigation into calls made to hold a protest that flouted restrictions imposed over the Covid-19 pandemic.</p><p>Zhdanov wrote on Twitter that Navalny's apartment in northern Moscow was being searched.</p><p>"A lot of 'heavies' in masks. They started breaking down the door," Zhdanov said, adding that Navalny's brother, Oleg, was inside the property.</p><p>At another location, Zhdanov posted video showing Yulia Navalnaya, the Kremlin critic's wife, telling police to wait for her lawyer to arrive as they banged loudly at the door.</p><p>Police also searched the offices of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, he said. Photos on social media showed around 20 masked men waiting to gain entry.</p><p>Navalny has not yet returned home since being poisoned last summer, as he was arrested immediately on his return to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering.</p><p>Social media crackdown</p><p>The police raids came as Russia's media watchdog said it would punish top social media platforms for failing to delete posts calling for minors to join unsanctioned protests in support of Navalny.</p><p>Ahead of Saturday's rallies, social media platforms including TikTok, which is popular among teenagers, were flooded with thousands of posts calling for Russians to demonstrate.</p><p>In response, Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor warned the platforms they would face fines for failing to delete such posts and said that several had removed a significant number.</p><p>But on Wednesday the watchdog deemed they had not done enough and said platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube, would be fined "for failure to comply with the requirements to suppress the spread of calls to minors to participate in unauthorized rallies".</p><p>"Despite the request of the prosecutor general's office and the notification from Roskomnadzor, these internet platforms did not remove in time a total of 170 illegal appeals," Roskomnadzor said in a statement.</p><p>It added that the fines would range from 800,000 rubles ($10,520) to 4 million rubles ($52,760).</p><p>Also on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin complained about the growing influence of large technology companies, which he said are "competing" with states. </p><p>Hashtags dedicated to Navalny have been trending on TikTok, where they have garnered more than 1.5 billion views since his return from Germany.</p><p><em>(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)</em></p>
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The View's Meghan McCain smacks Nikki Haley and Josh Hawley for selling their souls to ‘imitate Trump’
January 27, 2021
"The View" co-host Meghan McCain bashed fellow Republicans who are cynically trying to woo Donald Trump supporters with phony acts.
McCain has been saying the party is in shambles since Trump tried to overturn his election loss, and she ripped Nikki Haley and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) for going along with the ousted president's lies as he faces impeachment for inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
<p>"It's just a Dumpster fire," she said. "I will say that, you know, politics unfortunately should be about making moral calculations, but a lot of times it's about making political calculations, and when i saw Nikki Haley just now in that clip, she's clearly betting on the fact that Trumpism is here to stay, and she wants his base of supporters because she's clearly running for president and thinks she's a frontrunner."</p><p>That doesn't always work out the way would-be frontrunners think, she said.</p><p>"I'm sure there are people like [South Dakota Gov.] Kristi Noem who will have something to say about her being a frontrunner, and the problem with that is authenticity really is the only currency that really, really matters in politics at the end of the day," McCain said. "Joe Biden is a terribly authentic person, you know, [and] President Trump, whether you like him or not, was a really authentic person, and a lot of these people are trying to sell Trumpism, but it just doesn't work and it's not totally believable."</p><p>"That's Josh Hawley's problem," she added. "He's an Ivy League-educated scholar trying to go to the floor to put something forward that I don't believe he believed, and now he's in political purgatory. I think going forward, the idea that you can sort of calculate this, that Nikki Haley is, like, 'I'm the frontrunner and this is a great calculation' -- Chris Christie thought he would be the frontrunner. There's a litany of candidates who thought they would be the frontrunners and ended up coming in about 12th, 15th, and they were media darlings and it didn't work out."</p><p>McCain said the party would continue to suffer as long as Republicans who know better keep chasing Trump voters with increasingly crude antics.</p><p> "I wish I would see people on Capitol Hill in my party that were being authentic and saying what they actually felt instead of trying to get the Trump supporters, because I think with real leadership and real authenticity and real ideas and grassroots movements, people will follow," she said. "People will follow. You don't need to imitate something that has shown to be -- I wouldn't go so far as to say a cataclysmic failure, but not too far away."</p><p><br/></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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The world is watching us,' Secretary of State Antony Blinken says
January 27, 2021
Secretary of State Antony Blinken got to work Wednesday with a warning that the world's eyes were on the United States to see if it can heal deep divisions.
Blinken, a veteran diplomat and confidant of President Joe Biden, promised to rebuild morale and respect in a welcome ceremony at the State Department front entrance that was extraordinary for what was lacking -- crowds.
<p>With Covid-19 raging, Blinken asked that only a bare minimum of employees, all masked, come to see him -- and noted that just days earlier, barricades had been protecting the usually staid building near the National Mall in the wake of a failed insurrection at the Capitol.</p><p>"The world is watching us intently right now. They want to know if we can heal our nation," Blinken said.</p><p>"They want to see whether we will lead with the power of our example," he said, "if we'll will put a premium on diplomacy with our allies and partners to meet the great challenges of our time."</p><p>He said that the challenges included the pandemic as well as "climate change, the economic crisis, threats to democracies, fights for racial justice and the danger to our security and global stability posed by our rivals and adversaries."</p><p>Blinken said of the turbulent times, "The president is committed to getting us through it as quickly as possible, so that very soon, we can all gather in person again and have confidence that the foundations of our democracy are strong."</p><p>Under former president Donald Trump, close Western allies were rattled by his jarringly undiplomatic approach as he voiced fondness for autocratic leaders.</p><p>The divisiveness spread to the State Department where Blinken's predecessor Mike Pompeo was a relentless defender of Trump, using his welcoming speech to vow "swagger" and spending his final days railing against multiculturalism and the media.</p><p>Blinken, who served as a deputy secretary of state under former president Barack Obama, promised to listen to dissenting views and said pointedly, "I will have your back."</p><p>Trump fired the US ambassador to Ukraine as Trump sought to dig up dirt on Biden, a scandal that led to his first impeachment. </p><p>"I cannot promise that you will support every choice I make as your secretary. But I can promise an open door and an open mind," Blinken said.</p><p>Blinken, known for his even temper, was confirmed Tuesday by the Senate 78-22 with many members of Trump's Republican Party backing him, a turnaround from the narrow approval on partisan lines for Trump's two secretaries of state.</p><p>Blinken got to work Tuesday with calls to his counterparts from neighbors Canada and Mexico as well as top US allies Japan and South Korea, key players in what will likely be a defining issue of his tenure -- the rise of China.</p><p>He is expected later Wednesday to hold a news conference, a sign of early commitment to engaging with the media after tensions during the Trump administration.</p><p>Blinken in his confirmation hearing signalled a shift from Trump by pursuing diplomacy, including with Iran, but also pledged continuity including in the hard line on China.</p>
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