Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny sentenced again

The Russian opposition politician and anti-corruption fighter Alexei Navalny has never entertained any illusions about a life back in freedom anytime soon. At least since the attempted poisoning of him by a death squad of the Russian secret service in the summer of 2020, it was clear that the Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin wanted to see his intimate enemy behind bars at least for the rest of his rule. On Tuesday, the verdict in a procedure for alleged fraud was made on a particularly large scale.

After five hours of reading the verdict, judge Margarita Kotowa finally came to the sentence. Navalny has to go to the penal camp for another nine years, this time in an even stricter prison because he is now considered a repeat offender. The prosecution had asked for 13 years. He was also sentenced to a fine of 1.2 million rubles (about 10,000 francs). Navalny’s lawyers Olga Mikhailova and Vadim Kobsev announced an appeal. They were briefly taken away by the police.

process in the penal colony

The trial took place formally before the Moscow Lefortovo District Court. Unusually, however, it was carried out in the penal colony in the small town of Pokrov, around 100 kilometers east of Moscow. Navalny has been serving his current sentence there for a year. The special circumstances not only made access for visitors and the working conditions for the lawyers more difficult. Navalny also had to endure the whole process in prisoner’s clothing. So he seemed like a guilty party from the start.

Navalny was sentenced on Tuesday in two completely separate cases. In the case of large-scale fraud, Navalny and his closest associates are said to have diverted donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which they founded. They are said to have used them to lead a luxurious life and for “extremist purposes”. Last summer, the foundation was declared extremist at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, which is also being applied retrospectively. Navalny is also said to have misled his donors by collecting money for the 2018 presidential campaign, although his criminal record prevented him from participating from the outset.

In the second, separate case, Navalny was accused of insulting the judge and the court during the trial a year ago in the “insulting a World War II veteran” trial.

Questionable witnesses for the prosecution

Navalny and his defense attorneys rejected the allegations and referred to the dubious prosecution witnesses. Of the more than 300,000 donors that the organization has counted since it was founded in 2011, there were only four allegedly injured people who had either donated money under strange circumstances and then raised suspicions or were themselves involved in criminal proceedings and were therefore being pressured by the authorities are exposed. All of them made no claims in court.

One of the alleged key witnesses for the prosecution, the former FBK employee Fyodor Goroshanko, even withdrew his incriminating statements in court and later said that they were made under pressure. He called the allegations against Navalny absurd. When he was due to continue his testimony the next day, he stayed away from the hearing for fear of the consequences of his statements.

The prosecutor unsuccessfully resisted the defense being able to summon around two dozen defense witnesses. They all confirmed that they had never felt cheated. During the process, experts could not prove any money transfers from the foundation to Navalny’s accounts.

Navalny seems unbroken

From the indictment and the evidence to the court proceedings, what has been evident in the way the Russian state has been dealing with Navalny since his return from medical treatment in Germany in January 2021 has been confirmed: the judiciary is no longer even trying to maintain the appearance of the rule of law. It’s all about silencing Navalny, the archenemy of the president and of the political establishment in general, for as long and as brutally as possible.

This has not entirely succeeded so far: Navalny has regularly been able to spread messages via social networks through his lawyers. However, his foundation and his political organization, which had branches in Russia’s regions, have been broken up, and the former employees are scattered to the four winds or in prison. They continue their research from exile.

The verdict is intended to further reduce Navalny’s external impact. The sentence is high, and the sentence in a penal colony with strict enforcement is harsh. Even under the “usual” conditions, Navalny is exposed to particularly harsh treatment. Under the “strict regime” he will be surrounded by more dangerous inmates and more isolated from the outside world. This also increases the risk of someone laying hands on him in this “other world” and causing “accidental” accidents.

Navalny used the court proceedings as an opportunity to express himself publicly – even if only via transmission to another room. As always, he seemed composed and, despite the hard fate, has not entirely lost his own irony. But at the same time his anger at the system and at all the willing, submissive helpers has certainly grown. Did they believe that there would be impunity for them forever? he asked in his speech, which was disturbed by numerous interruptions Closing words at the end of the pleadings a week ago. Even if they imprisoned him for 113 years – no one would be able to intimidate and imprison all the dissatisfied.