Aussie Jews can ‘sway opinion’ among friends in Russia
Leonid Volkov, the Jewish chief of staff to jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, is in Australia to urge the government to continue its sanctions against Moscow.
Jewish Australians from the former Soviet Union can play a role in enlightening relatives and friends inside Russia who may have been duped by President Vladimir Putin’s state media blitz over the Ukraine war.
That was a message from Leonid Volkov, the Jewish chief of staff to jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, during his Australian visit last week.
However, Volkov stated during his visit that apart from Putin’s media offensive, Russia is now cracking down harshly even on minor acts of public dissent over the war.
Volkov is in Australia to urge the government to continue its sanctions against Moscow.
In Melbourne, he took part in a briefing for Australia’s Russian Jewish community at Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre.
Navalny, an anti-corruption activist, was hospitalised and medically evacuated from Russia to Germany in 2020 after being poisoned with Novichok nerve agent by the Russian secret service. The famous poisoning was retold in Navalny, an Oscar-winning documentary.
On his return to Russia in 2021, Navalny was jailed and is now in a high-security prison.
Volkov told ABC-TV Navalny has been imprisoned in draconian conditions to try to “break down Alexei psychologically … physically harassing him … to make his life in prison unbearable”.
But he said the opposition leader has not been silenced. On the first anniversary of the Ukraine war, he communicated a public message through lawyers that Russia must restore Ukraine’s borders and return Crimea which it annexed after a 2014 invasion.
Volkov said Australia is “one of the leading countries … with regard to sanctions policy” and along with the US, UK, the European Union and Canada, maintains sanctions “against Putin’s friends and oligarchs”.
At the March 29 briefing at Beth Weizmann, Volkov was asked what Russians and Jews in Australia can do to help Ukraine. He said Australian Jews could help change public opinion but that “requires long-term patience”.
“Every time you talk to someone, your distant relative, your friend, somebody you’re in touch with in Russia, you contribute to this giant task of swaying public opinion, of depriving Putin of his support.”
The briefing, the first Volkov has ever addressed at a Jewish community centre, was hosted by Victorian deputy Liberal leader and Caulfield MP David Southwick and Roman Mirkus, vice-president of the Australian Forum of Russian-Speaking Jewry.
Communal attendees included Zionism Victoria executive director Zeddy Lawrence, former Zionist Federation of Australia president Danny Lamm and Glen Eira councillor Sam Parasol.
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