Amnesty International acknowledged one of the most damaging failures in its history yesterday and ordered an investigation into what critics have called its betrayal of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.
The human rights charity, which was founded in 1961 and is based in Britain, is facing growing criticism from supporters after it decided that Navalny was no longer a “prisoner of conscience” without consulting its Moscow office. Navalny’s status was rescinded on Wednesday because of comments he made about migrants 14 years ago.
The Times understands that the decision was taken by the London HQ after requests from people linked to RT, the Russian state-funded broadcaster.
Julie Vahaar, Amnesty’s secretary-general, said the internal inquiry would examine “what went wrong and how we ended up in
