To:
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Council, Charles Michel
Dear President Ursula von der Leyen,
Dear President Charles Michel,
We, the undersigned experts, politicians, public figures, human rights activists and members of the Russian opposition call upon the European Union’s leadership to address the issue of Alexey Navalny’s imprisonment with the utmost priority.
We urge you to seek for his unconditional and immediate release and the halt of police violence against Russian people attending peaceful protests all over the Russian Federation in support of Mr. Navalny.
The European human rights sanctions mechanism, the European Magnitsky Act, should be used to bring to account those responsible for human rights violations against Alexey Navalny, including assassination attempts, and against peaceful protesters.
Moreover, should Russian authorities fail to engage into genuine cooperation, targeted sanctions should be applied against individuals and companies responsible for the regime’s policies of terror and human rights violations and against Kremlin’s strategic projects benefiting Putin’s regime, such as Nord Stream 2.
Sincerely,
Petras Auštrevičius, Member of the European Parliament, Lithuania
Raphaël Glucksmann, Member of the European Parliament, France
Radosław Sikorski, Member of the European Parliament, Poland
William Browder, Human Rights Activist, Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign
Vladimir Kara-Murza, Vice President, Free Russia Foundation
Edward Lucas, Writer, Author, Security Expert, CEPA
Michał Kamiński, Deputy Speaker of the Senate of the Republic of Poland
Žygimantas Pavilionis, Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee, Parliament (Seimas) of the Republic of Lithuania
Rihards Kols, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Parliament (Saeima) of the Republic of Latvia
Pavel Fischer, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense, Senate of the Czech Republic
Tom Tugendhat, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the UK Parliament
André Gattolin, Vice-Chair of the European Affairs Committee, Member of the French Senate
Hans Wallmark, Deputy Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Member of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag)
Vytautas Landsbergis, The First Head of State of the Republic of Lithuania
Valdas Adamkus, President of the Republic of Lithuania (1998-2003 and 2004-2009)
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia (2006-2016), Professor, Tartu University
Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania (2009-2019
Jerzy Buzek, Former President of the European Parliament, Member of the European Parliament, Poland
Roberta Metsola, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Malta
Carl Bildt, Former Prime Minister of Sweden
Guy Verhofstadt, Member of the European Parliament, Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Andrius Kubilius, Member of the European Parliament, Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania
Andrus Ansip, Member of the European Parliament, Former Prime Minister of Estonia
Iveta Radičová, Former Prime Minister of Slovakia
Gediminas Kirkilas, Former Prime Minister of Lithuania
Vesna Pusić, Former Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia
Urmas Paet, Vice Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Member of the European Parliament, Estonia
Hans van Baalen, President, ALDE Party
Andrey Borisovich Zubov, Vice Chairman, People’s Freedom Party (PARNAS), Russia
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Founder, Open Russia
Lilia Shevtsova, Political Scientist, Liberal Mission Foundation, Russia
Garry Kasparov, Chairman, Human Rights Foundation (HRF)
Andrei Piontkovsky, Visiting Fellow, Hudson Institute
Natalia Arno, President, Free Russia Foundation
Oleh Sentsov, Film director, writer, ex-prisoner, Cry Cinema
Michael Abramowitz, President, Freedom House
Geir Hønneland, Secretary General, Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Alice Stollmeyer, Executive Director, Defend Democracy
Ivana Bacik, Senator, Oireachtas (Irish Parliament)
Gunnar Hökmark, Former Member of the European Parliament, Chairman of the Stockholm Free World Forum
David J. Kramer, Senior Fellow, Florida International University
Alan Mendoza, Executive Director, The Henry Jackson Society
Katarina Tracz, Director, Stockholm Free World Forum
Witold Waszczykowski, Member of the European Parliament, 1st Vice-Chair of AFET, Poland
Markéta Gregorová, Member of the European Parliament, Czechia
Eerik Niiles Kross, Member of the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu), Delegate to PACE
Kerstin Lundgren, Member of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag), Spokesperson in Foreign Affairs for the Center Party
Andrei Sannikov, Chairman, European Belarus Foundation
Brian Whitmore, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
Emanuelis Zingeris, Member of Parliament (Seimas) of the Republic of Lithuania, Chairman of the Parliamentary Delegation to PACE
Irwin Cotler, Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Chair, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights
Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, Member of the Polish Parliament (Sejm), Former Minister of Labour and Minister of Education
Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Member of Parliament (Seimas) of the Republic of Lithuania, Vice President of PACE, Former Member of the European Parliament
Joerg Forbrig, Director for Central and Eastern Europe, German Marshall Fund of the United States
Ronald Deibert, Director and Professor, The Citizen Lab, University of Toronto
Glanis Changachirere, Director, Institute for Young Women Development
Jakub Klepal, Executive Director, Forum 2000 Foundation
Bassma Kodmani, Member of the Syrian Constitutional Committee
Gina Romero, Executive Director, Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy
Manuel Sarrazin, Member of the German Parliament (Bundestag), Spokesman for Eastern European Affairs, Alliance 90/The Greens
Ronald Deibert, Director and Professor, the Citizen Lab, University of Toronto
Lars Adaktusson, Member of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag)
Vasil Sikharulidze, Chairman, Atlantic Council of Georgia
Eka Gigauri, Executive Director, Transparency International Georgia
Maiko Ichihara, Associate Professor, Hitotsubashi University, Japan
Ghia Nodia, Professor, Ilia State University, Georgia
Michal Šimečka, Member of the European Parliament, Slovakia
Brigitte Dufour, Director, International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR)
Tamara Adrian, Member of the National Assembly of Venezuela
Andrea Ngombet, Founder, Incarner l’Espoir
Manuel Cuesta Morúa, Spokesperson, Progressive Arc, Cuba
Dr. Jianli Yang, Founder and President, Citizen Power Initiatives for China
Arch Puddington, Senior Scholar Emeritus, Freedom House
Alina Mungiu Pippidi, Professor, Democracy Chair, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
Moises Naim, Distinguished Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Agnieszka Holland, Film Director, EFA President, European Film Academy
Kornely Kakachia, Director, Georgian Institute of Politics
Ladan Boroumand, Co-founder and Senior Fellow, Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran
Karin Karlsbro, Member of the European Parliament, Sweden
Tutu Alicante, Executive Director, EG Justice
Nino Evgenidze, Executive Director, the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC), Georgia
Claudio Lodici, Professor of Political Science and Democracies Studies, Loyola University Chicago
Rasa Juknevičienė, Member of the European Parliament, Lithuania
Mykola Riabchuk, Honorary President, Ukrainian PEN Center
Bart Groothuis, Member of the European Parliament, The Netherlands
Anna Fotyga, Member of the European Parliament, Poland
Zoltán Kész, Former Member of the Hungarian Parliament (Országgyűlés), Director of Operations, Civitas Institue
Leszek Jazdzewski, Editor-in-Chief, Liberte!
Thor Halvorssen, President, Human Rights Foundation (HRF)
Martin Palous, Senior Fellow, Florida International University
Ion Manole, Executive Director, Promo-LEX, Moldova
Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Tomas Halik, President, Czech Christian Academy
Ivars Ijabs, Member of the European Parliament, Latvia
Lee Feinstein, Former US Ambassador to Poland
Ramona Strugariu, Member of the European Parliament, Romania
Anar Mammadli, Chairperson, Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center, Azerbaijan
Amb. Martin Bútora (ret.), Founder and Honorary President, Institute for Public Affairs, Bratislava, Slovakia
Enrique Krauze, Editor, Letras Libres Magazine
Thomas O. Melia, Washington Director, PEN America
Husain Haqqani, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
Gabriel C. Salvia, General Director, CADAL
Edipcia Dubón, Coordinator, Diálogo de Mujeres por la Democracia
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Professor, the Institute for Science and International Security, Faculty of Political Science, Thailand
Joshua Muravchik, Adjunct Professor, Institute of World Politics
Arthur Larok, Federation Development Director, ActionAid
Surendra Munshi, Independent Researcher and Consultant
Tinatin Khidasheli, Chairperson, Civic IDEA
Andreas Bummel, Executive Director, Democracy Without Borders
Miklos Haraszti, Former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Fellow, Center for Media, Data and Society, Central European University
Gunnar Martin Ekeløve-Slydal, Director of Policies, Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Antonio López-Istúriz White, Member of the European Parliament, Spain
Myroslav Marynovych, Vice-Rector, Ukrainian Catholic University
Francis Fukuyama, Senior Fellow, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University
Michael Zantovsky, Executive Director, Vaclav Havel Library
Jostein Hole Kobbeltvedt, Executive Director, Rafto Foundation for Human Rights
Bjorn Engesland, Senior Adviser, Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Andis Kudors, Political Scientist, Former Executive Director of the Centre for East European Policy Studies, Latvia
Natalia Pushkareva, Programme Director – Tax Reform and Public Finance Management, International Lawyers Project
Kenneth Wollack, Chairman, National Endowment for Democracy
Adam Michnik, Editor-in-Chief, Gazeta Wyborcza
André Vallini, Member of the French Senate
Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa, Founder and Director, Islamic Renaissance Front
Nicolae Ștefănuță, Member of the European Parliament, Romania
Cholpon Dzhakupova, Director of the Public Foundation ”Legal Clinic ”Adilet”, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Steven Blockmans, Director, CEPS
Javier Nart, Member of the European Parliament, Spain
Robert Hannah, Member of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag)
Frédérique Ries, Member of the European Parliament, Belgium, Vice-Chair of Renew Europe
John Shattuck, Professor, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Reinhard Bütikofer, Member of the European Parliament, Germany
Urmas Paet, Member of the European Parliament, Estonia
Eric Bjornlund, President, Democracy International
Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
Jan Lipavský, Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic
Adam Eberhardt, Director, Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), Warsaw
Michael Weiss, Editor-at-Large, The Daily Beast
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Member of the European Parliament, Poland
Damon M. Wilson, Executive Vice President, Atlantic Council
Idayat Hassan, Director, Centre for Democracy and Development
Adam Reichardt, Editor in Chief, New Eastern Europe
Eugene Czolij, President, NGO ”Ukraine-2050”
Konstantin Eggert, Journalist
Susan Hawley, Director, Spotlight on Corruption
Helena Langšádlová, Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic
Marek Belka, Member of the European Parliament, Poland
David Lega, Member of the European Parliament, Sweden
Hampus Hagman, Member of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag)
Pavel Žáček, Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic
Christian Carlsson, Member of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag)
Rupert Skilbeck, REDRESS
Lukáš Wagenknecht, Member of the Senate of the Czech Republic
Ondřej Veselý, Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic
Timothy Otty QC, Blackstone Chambers
Andris Spruds, Director, Latvian Institute of International Affairs
Sven Mikser, Member of the European Parliament, Estonia
Miriam Lexmann, Member of the European Parliament, Slovakia
Andrzej Halicki, Member of the European Parliament, Poland
Andreas Schieder, Member of the European Parliament, Austria
Arba Kokalari, Member of the European Parliament, Sweden
Ana Maria Rosa Martins Gomes, Former Member of the European Parliament, Portugal
Indrek Kannik, Director, International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS), Tallinn