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A RUSSIAN rock legend has dedicated a song to the late Alexei Navalny following his death in jail on Friday.
As he performed for a huge crowd in Kazakhstan Yuri Shevchuk made a heartfelt tribute to the fallen anti-corruption activist.
Russian rock star Yuri Shevchuk dedicated one of his songs to Alexei Navalny following his death[/caption]
Alexei Navalny was the Russian opposition leader[/caption]
Yuri Shevchuk was performing in Kazakhstan when he delivered the tribute[/caption]
Navalny was one of Putin’s most outspoken opponents who spent his final moments suffering in a hellhole Arctic prison after he was locked up for three decades last August.
Navalny denied the charges of fraud and contempt of court but was nevertheless handed the devastating sentence which he had served for just two years before his death.
Shevchuk – who is known for being critical of the Vladimir Putin‘s government – addressed his audience saying: “Alexey Navalny, who spoke to us Russians about freedom, has perished.
“He reminded us that we can all become free in the best sense of the word. He said that faith without freedom is fanaticism.
“Labor without freedom is slavery. Nothing exists without freedom!”
The Russian opposition leader did not expect to be released during Putin’s lifetime.
But it would turn out he wouldn’t survive that long.
According to the Russia‘s Federal Penitentiary Service Navalny felt unwell after a walk at the feared “Polar Wolf” jail, and lost consciousness.
An ambulance arrived to try to revive him, but he died. It said the cause of death was “being established”.
Is had now emerged that Navalny’s body was found covered in bruises and being guarded in a morgue amid claims Russia had him killed.
Navalny, 47, has consistent marks that could show he was “murdered” under Vladimir Putin’s chilling regime after it was suggested he suffered a seizure in jail, said paramedics who saw his body.
A medic, who works at the hospital where Navalny’s body was sent, said: “As an experienced paramedic, I can say that the injuries described by those who saw them appeared to be from convulsions.
“If a person is convulsing and others try to hold him down but the convulsions are very strong, then bruising appears.”
There were also signs that someone in the jail tried to save Navalny before he died as there were bruises on his chest showing evidence of CPR.
The paramedic continued: “They still tried to resuscitate him, and he died, most likely, from cardiac arrest. But why this stop happened, no one is saying anything yet.”
Russia gave the official cause of death as “sudden death syndrome” yesterday, say Navalny’s family and lawyer.
His death was confirmed to be at 14.17 local time on February 16, according to a document given to Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya.
Hospital pathologists were allegedly banned from performing an autopsy on his body, the source added.
As soon as his corpse arrived it was quickly transferred to the morgue and two cops were made to stand blocking off the door so no one could look inside, they continued.
The paramedic said: “Everyone wanted to know what had happened, what all the secrecy was about and whether they were trying to hide something serious.”
Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya wrote a message to her husband today in her first social media post since his death.
She posted a photo of them together followed by the heartbreaking caption: “I love you.”
Navalny’s mother went with his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh to say goodbye to his body at a morgue they were told his body was being sent to.
But after arriving they were shocked to find the corpse was missing.
Russian authorities later announced they delayed the release of the body because they hadn’t found the cause of death yet, prominent Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said.
He was jailed for three decades in 2021 but died on Friday[/caption]
Here Navalny is pictured with his wife Yulia[/caption]
PUTIN’S best known opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, has died in prison.
Here is a timeline that took the leader of the opposition from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s biggest foe to a hellhole Siberian prison and onto an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he majored in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant over-development in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for calling out corruption in state-run corporation
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia’s election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – Further mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement. He rejects the claims and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor’s race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt he blames on Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president
August, 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma on a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Jan 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
Feb 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison
June 2021 — A Mocow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his extended political network
Feb 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication & suffering from slow poisoning
April, 2023 — Navalny from inside prison says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
Aug 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
Dec 2023 – He disappears from his prison as his team fear he could be assassination. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
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PUTIN has resorted to recruiting Neo-Nazis and football hooligans to form his own private army – the ruthless Española group.
By gathering die-hard football fans across Russia, the group’s leader Orlov Stanislav – dubbed “The Spaniard” – has created a military unit that has fought in some of the most intense battles of the Ukraine war.
The Española group was formed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022[/caption]
The group consists of football fans from different teams across Russia[/caption]
The Spaniard, a well-known CSKA fan claimed he fought in the second Chechen War[/caption]
The group has fought in the most intense battles of the war[/caption]
It is estimated to have around 1,000 members today[/caption]
The Española group are recruited through Telegram and then trained in sites near Moscow[/caption]
Ukraine‘s Defence Intelligence confirmed last month that Putin’s United Russia had officially granted the group the status of private military company (PMC).
The unit recruits football thugs, particularly those closer to the Nazi ideology, as well as civilians from poor parts of Russia and occupied territories.
As it gained popularity following the invasion of Ukraine, the battalion ended up fighting in major battles, including in Mariupol, Bakhmut, Soledar, and Vuhledar, according to Lucas Webber, co-founder of the Militant Wire research network.
With “hundreds” of fighters, the volunteer brigade “operates with some degree of independence” from the Russian Armed Forces, he said.
He told The Sun: “Española plays an important role in its outreach to Russia’s ultra/hooligan communities and in drawing recruits and support from these population segments for the war in Ukraine.
“Española appeals to a unique subset of Russia’s far-right militarist ecosystem and is distinct from the neo-Nazi Rusich organisation and the hard-line Orthodox Russian Imperialist Movement.
“Española is a volunteer brigade that operates with some degree of independence from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
“The group has historical ties to the Donetsk People’s Republic forces and has hundreds of fighters.
“Its propaganda describes how it is multifaceted and has artillery, anti-aircraft weapons, sniper teams, drone operators, and more.”
While various rogue mercenary groups have emerged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Española has gradually started to form since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The group – previously associated with the militant group Vostok Battalion – was operating mainly in the Russian-held region of Donetsk.
The group’s leader is Stanislav Orlov, 43, is a prominent figure among CSKA fans.
A radical member of the team’s ultras Red-Blue Warriors, Orlov claims to have joined the Russian army in 1999 and fought in the Second Chechen War.
He is said to have fought Donbas in 2014 alongside other ultras and earned his nickname “The Spaniard” thanks to his language skills as he was able to recruit foreign mercenaries.
Following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Orlov created the Española group as Putin was desperately trying to boost ranks in the frontline – with even ex-international footballer Andrey Solomatin, 47, signing up.
Webber said one of the most visible members of the group is former MMA fighter and Zenit hooligan Mikhail “Pitbull” Turkanov.
Turkanov – who has tattoos of the swastika – has been wounded in combat and has received awards from the Russian military.
Orlov was a hardcore member of the CSKA ultras Red-Blue Warriors[/caption]
The recruits come from Dynamo, Lokomotiv, Spartak, Zenit and other hooligans[/caption]
Stanislav Orlov also known as the Spaniard has been fighting in Donbas since 2014[/caption]
Mikhail “Pitbull” Turkanov is also a member of the private army unit[/caption]
Other members are hooligans from Moscow-based football teams[/caption]
Dr Stephen Hall Lecturer in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics at the University of Bath estimates the elite army unit has roughly 1,000 members and has been actively supported by Russia throughout the war.
He told The Sun: “Orlov probably has close links to someone in the Ministry of Defence.
“He’s been fighting since 2014 in the Donbas and he’s been there for a long time.
“He certainly has a past of being a football thug and he created the Española mercenary group in February 2022 just after the war began – so clearly someone had been preparing.
“They’ve relied heavily on football thugs across the Moscow-based football teams such as Dynamo, Lokomotiv and Spartak.
“They seem to be well prepared, well trained and well equipped by the Russian army.
“The Russian Army has given them a lot of support as they are the ones fighting against Azov the group that Russian state propaganda has stated they’re Nazis and the ones behind the Ukrainian regime.”
Dr Hall notes the “shady” group does not have a strong social media presence – unlike Wagner- but explains how they use Telegram to target recruits.
He added: “It’s quite a shady group whereas in Wagner they very ran their social media campaign Espanola doesn’t have a social media footprint.
“That always leads to the question of who is behind them, and who is protecting them and I say the Ministry of Defence.”
They seem to be well prepared, well trained and well equipped by the Russian army
Dr Stephen Hall
Telegram is widely used across Russia and is “a more effective way of getting the people you want to join,” he adds.
The potential candidates are interviewed through the platform and if successful they are taken for training in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Volunteers are offered a salary of £1,900 a month for at least six months at the frontline, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
Russia is also using “insurance payments” to lure civilians into battle – that can vary from £8,700 to £43,500 depending on the severity of the injury.
But Ukraine’s intelligence notes that for most civilians the first battle is a “one-way ticket” as they are used as cannon fodder.
The dead and those seriously injured are registered as “missing” so Russia avoids paying the families.
The notorious Battle of Marseille happened during England’s opening match for Euro 2016.
The massive brawl erupted when Russian football fans attacked England supporters leaving many of them with serious injuries following a 1-1 draw.
14 England fans were left in hospital – including two with life-threatening injuries.
Dad-of-three Stewart Gray was left fighting for his life after being ambushed by hooligans.
His brother Duncan described the scenes as “like a war zone, the worst violence I have ever seen.”
Dr Hall told The Sun: “This is the “beauty” of East European football.
“As we know from 2016 when Russian and English football fans met one another in Marseille – it was definitely eye-opening what Russian fans were doing
“They had these football wars and battles so they were versed in that.”
Lucas Webber added: “Española both leverages its online propaganda apparatus and real-world domestic networks.
“It runs several channels on Telegram and VK. Its propaganda campaign also involves community initiatives and humanitarian work inside occupied regions in Ukraine to boost its profile and grow its ranks.
“One example is the founding of a youth football team in occupied Ukraine.
“This was apparent during the Wagner Group’s mutiny, for instance.”
“In its propaganda, Española presents a patriotic message of soccer ultras overcoming previous divisions to unite over a nationalistic cause.
“The group has sometimes voiced criticisms of the Russian government and military establishment.”
The Española group is one of a long list of units operating in Ukraine.
Apart from Wagner which was hit by the death of its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin last summer, other smaller paramilitary forces include Ptok, by energy giant Gazprom, Redut, the Patriot, the Orthodox Brotherhood, ENOT.
They all operate around the world and recruit all types of soldiers – seemingly with Russia’s support.
Volunteers earn a salary of £1,900 – pictured volunteer Chernika (Blueberry)[/caption]
Lucas Webber says the unit is equipped with weapons, sniper teams and drone operators[/caption]
The group also offers insurance payments for those injured on the battlefield[/caption]
Ukrainian intelligence suggests that volunteers are used as cannon fodder in battle[/caption]
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