Alexei Navalny ally quits after urging EU to drop sanctions against oligarchs
A close ally of Alexei Navalny has resigned his post at the opposition leader’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) after it was revealed that he had signed letters calling for the EU to drop sanctions against several UK-based Russian billionaire oligarchs.
Leonid Volkov confirmed he had signed and sent a 2022 letter to Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs chief, in which he called for Brussels to relax sanctions on Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, and business partners German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, in a scandal marked by infighting among Russia’s contentious liberal and opposition circles.
“This letter was a big political mistake,” wrote Volkov in a post on Thursday where he uploaded the October 2022 letter to Borrell. “Worse, by doing this, I exceeded my authority – I signed it not in my personal capacity, but on behalf of the organisation. I did not inform my colleagues, and, therefore, I also put them [on the letter].”
Volkov said he would resign from ACF International’s board and “take a break from my public socio-political activity”. The organisation had earlier published a list of 6,000 “bribetakers and warmongers” it said should be issued with sanctions by western countries.
The admission came after Alexei Venediktov, the former editor-in-chief of the Echo of Moscow radio station, posted another letter that showed Volkov’s signature among several other prominent Kremlin critics, who stated that “we are of the opinion that it is unreasonable to impose sanctions against the shareholders of Alfa Group”, including Fridman, Aven, and their business partners.
The letter went on to say that the company’s managers had “always emphasised their political non-engagement” and also mentioned Fridman’s friendship with the late Boris
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