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Verbatim report of proceedings
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Tuesday, 19 January 2021 - Brussels Revised edition

The arrest of Aleksei Navalny (debate)
MPphoto
 

  Andrius Kubilius (PPE). – Madam President, first of all, we of course express our solidarity with Aleksei Navalny and his family. Obviously we are demanding freedom for Navalny and we are demanding sanctions to punish those who did it.

If Putin were not afraid of Navalny and of the Russian people’s demand for change, Navalny would stay free. This is a manifestation of Putin following in the footsteps of dictator Lukashenko. Putin shares with Lukashenko the same fear of real elections. Lukashenko was stealing elections from the Belarusian people by jailing potential candidates Viktar Babaryka, and Sergey Tikhanovski. Putin is doing the same by arresting Aleksei Navalny. Lukashenko has finished the year 2020 with a single question, addressed globally and domestically, namely when and how he will be ousted from power. Putin is starting to move in the same direction, which may have the same outcome at the end of this year. Putin in some ways is a delayed Lukashenko.

The people of Belarus have clearly shown that the majority of them are for change. The Russian people are not different and that is why Navalny was arrested. What we saw during those days is an additional reason to repeat what we said last year in September: the EU needs to launch a thorough reassessment of its relations with Russia and to consider that the pursuit of democracy should be the centrepiece of this new EU strategy towards the Russian Federation. Democracy is possible in Ukraine, it is possible in Belarus, and it is also possible in Russia. We are standing together with the Russian people.

 
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