First things first, apparently
Sobchak to lobby against Russia sanctions during her election-season visit to the U.S.
Kremlin Alleges U.S. 'Oligarchs List' Aims To Influence Election
By RFE/RL
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that Moscow believes a hotly anticipated U.S. list of rich Russians seen as close to President Vladimir Putin is an attempt to meddle in the country's March 18 election.
Peskov made the remarks on January 29, ahead of the expected release by the U.S. Treasury Department of what is known as the "Kremlin Report."
"We really do believe that this is a direct and obvious attempt to time some steps to coincide with the election in order to exert influence on it," Peskov told journalists.
The report was mandated by Congress in a law aimed to increase pressure on Russia after the U.S. intelligence community said that Putin ordered a concerted hacking-and-propaganda campaign aimed to influence the U.S. presidential election in 2016.
President Donald Trump, who called for warmer ties with Russia during the campaign, reluctantly signed the bill into law in August 2017.
It gave the Treasury Department, the State Department, and intelligence agencies 180 days to identify people by “their closeness to the Russian regime and their net worth.”
Russian business leaders and others named on the list -- part of which may be kept classified -- will not immediately be hit with sanctions but could face them in the future....
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The Kremlin is portraying potential U.S. sanctions and the publication of a list of Kremlin-connected insiders and businessmen as attempts to meddle in Russia’s March 18 elections. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tells Russian media like Life News: “This is an attempt to influence the elections,” he said. “But we are sure there will be no impact.”
Day After Nationwide Protests, Kremlin Says Navalny No Threat
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says the Kremlin does not consider opposition leader Aleksei Navalny a threat.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke to reporters on January 29, a day after thousands of people demonstrated in cities nationwide in support of Navalny's call for a boycott of the March 18 election that appears certain to extend Putin's rule.
A respected independent monitor said police detained at least 350 people including Navalny, who has been barred from challenging Putin in the election due to a financial-crimes conviction that he and his supporters contend was Kremlin-engineered retribution for his opposition activity.
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An interview with liberal political scientist Aleksandr Kynev about the view of the election in the regions. No intrigue over who will win, he says, but officials are worried that the "absolute number of votes might turn out to be the lowest result in the entire history of [post-Soviet] elections."
Kynev criticizes candidate Ksenia Sobchak's "against all" strategy, saying anyone knows that voting for any candidate other than Putin is the same as a vote "against all." He says that Sobchak's already-high negative rating has grown over the course of the campaign.
Riga-based Russian-language news site Meduza offered a quick video take -- under two minutes -- on the January 28 election-boycott rallies in Russia.
Our Moscow correspondent at the protest.
At Least 350 Detained At Election Boycott Rallies In Russia
By Tom Balmforth
MOSCOW -- At least 350 people, including opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, were detained across Russia as they rallied in support of an election boycott on January 28.
The anticorruption crusader was dragged by police into a bus shortly after joining a rally of more than 1,000 people on Moscow's central thoroughfare on January 28, according to a live video feed from the scene.