Another illustration of growing repression in Russia. Alexei Navalny, main opponent of Vladimir Putin, was found guilty of “fraud” and “contempt of court”, and sentenced to nine years in prison by a Russian judge on Tuesday March 22.
The judge, Margarita Kotova, said to add to this sentence a year and a half of supervised release and 1.2 million rubles fine, or around 10,000 euros at the rate of the day, while the Kremlin critic has already been imprisoned for more than a year. Alexei Navalny is tried since mid-February behind the walls of his penal colony, 100 km east of Moscow, in an improvised court.
The opponent’s lawyers were arrested in front of this penal colony on Tuesday, AFP journalists noted. Olga Mikhaïlova and Vadim Kobzev were arrested on the grounds, it seems, that they were obstructing traffic in front of the prison by speaking with the press.
Investigators accuse Alexei Navalny of embezzling millions of rubles in donations to his anti-corruption organizations and of “contempt of court” during one of his previous hearings. He denounces fictitious charges ordered by the Kremlin, in order to keep him in prison as long as possible. The prosecution had requested last week that the sentence of two and a half years of detention that the opponent has been serving for a little over a year be increased to 13 years of imprisonment.
Alexeï Navalny appeared at the hearing dressed in his convict uniform, his face emaciated, listening to the statement of the verdict with his hands in his pockets, between two laughs and discussions with his lawyers. He will have to serve his sentence in a “severe regime penal colony”, which means that his conditions of detention will become stricter.
In June 2021, his organizations, which had been campaigning for years across Russia, were designated “extremist” and banned on the spot, driving many activists into exile to avoid prosecution. Others have since been arrested and face heavy prison sentences. This relentless crackdown, which has been accompanied by the banning of the last media outlets and NGOs critical of the Kremlin, has prompted an outcry in Western countries and sanctions against Moscow.
“Putin is afraid of the truth, I have always said that. The fight against censorship, bringing the truth to the people of Russia, remains our priority”reacted Alexeï Navalny Tuesday on Twitter, after the announcement of his conviction.
6/10 By the way, please note that they kept jamming my “last word” by interrupting the broadcast.
That’s understandable: words have power, Putin is afraid of the truth, I have always said that.
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) March 22, 2022