Kremlin Hostage Takers

Vladimir Putin jails the brother of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has complemented his aggressions abroad this year with a sharp crackdown against domestic opponents. That crackdown entered a sinister new stage Tuesday against Alexei Navalny.

A Russian court convicted the lawyer and opposition leader on fraud charges and handed him a suspended 31/2 -year sentence. Mr. Navalny has long been the target of Kremlin harassment for exposing corruption in high places, so there was little surprise at his conviction on spurious charges. Representatives from French cosmetics giant Yves Rocher, whose Russian subsidiary is one of his supposed victims, testified they suffered no harm from the deals at issue in the case.

But the court also convicted Mr. Navalny’s younger brother, Oleg, on similar charges and has imprisoned him for 31/2 years, despite his non-involvement in politics. The Kremlin’s new strategy appears to be to allow its critics to go (relatively) free so as not to make them political martyrs, while holding their family members hostage.

There’s “a clear threat that if Alexei steps out of line, they will torture or even kill his brother in prison,” William Browder, a London fund manager turned anti-Kremlin crusader, told us via email. Stalin would recognize the tactic.

The Kremlin has reason to worry about the elder Navalny, who enjoys broad support among the educated young. Thousands attended protests he led against electoral rigging in the winter of 2011, and in 2013 he won 27% of the vote in a Moscow mayoral election, despite state-run media support for the incumbent and a short campaigning window. Tuesday’s hearing was abruptly brought forward by several weeks to avert protests planned for the original court date.

Mr. Navalny appears undeterred by Mr. Putin’s hostage gambit. The activist defied a house-arrest hours after the hearing and joined an antigovernment rally, where he was quickly arrested. But he shouldn’t have to stare down the Kremlin alone.

Washington already imposes sanctions on Russians involved in the suspicious death in 2009 of corruption whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky while he was detained on cooked-up tax-fraud charges. The State Department on Monday added four more Russian officials to that list under the Magnitsky Act.

Congress and the Administration can now also apply a similar sanction to Russian officials involved in the Navalny case. The Kremlin is banking on Alexei constantly remembering that Oleg sits in jail. Washington can show that it remembers too.

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