“I have not yet been found guilty, but I am already presented in prisoner’s uniform! » From the first minutes of his new trial, Tuesday February 15, Alexeï Navalny counter-attacked, true to himself, between provocation and irony. Uniquely, Russian justice organized the hearings for this new trial of Alexei Navalny in the same prison: penal colony No. 2 in Pokrov, located 100 kilometers from Moscow.
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Imprisoned for a year, the anti-Kremlin opposition leader is being prosecuted in two new cases. The first concerns a supposed scam: the investigators accuse him of having embezzled the equivalent of 4.7 million dollars in donations intended for his organizations. The procedure was opened at the end of 2020, while in Berlin he was in intensive care after being poisoned during a trip to Siberia.
In the second case, Navalny is prosecuted for “contempt of court” : justice accuses him of having insulted the judge during the trial for “defamation of a veteran”which followed his arrest upon his return from Germany in January 2021. In these two cases, he faces up to ten years and six months in prison respectively.
In convict clothes
Coming out of his cell, Navalny appeared in his convict outfit, his hair shaved. He sat next to his lawyers, surrounded by several guards. “If they show me like this, it’s so that the grandmother behind her TV thinks that I’m already in prison anyway”, he protested. His lawyers asked that he be dressed in civilian clothes and that the adjourned hearing be transferred to a Moscow court. A request denied.
The staging in Pokrov prison has an advantage for the authorities: in the room, there are few journalists and, around, no demonstrators. The only concession of justice: the wife of the opponent, Yulia Navalnaïa, was able to attend the hearing and kiss her husband during a break. In a message on social networks, she denounced ” cowardice “ of the Kremlin, calling the new lawsuits against her husband a “illegal and dishonest”.
Sentenced for a video game
Already sentenced last year to two and a half years in prison in a case of ” fraud “, this new trial of Alexei Navalny comes as, since the beginning of the year, the wave of repression has continued in all directions against voices critical of Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin, on the heels of 2021. It is is extended to lawyers, journalists and ordinary citizens who have neither media aura nor financial support to defend themselves against a judicial machine under tight political control. This is the case of Nikita Ouvarov, 16: this teenager was sentenced, Thursday, February 10, by a military court in Siberia to five years in prison for having “trained in terrorism” by blowing up a secret service building in… a video game.
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With these particular cases put forward by the authorities, the message sent is clear: do not oppose, do not attack the security forces. And don’t protest. This new wave of repression coincides with the tenth anniversary of the 2011-2012 protests. “ Ukhodi! » (“Leave!”), cried then in the streets of Moscow up to 100,000 people at the address of Vladimir Putin. No demonstrations of this magnitude took place in 2021.
The dynamic middle class eager for political freedoms that protested ten years ago has fallen silent, caught up in the concerns of everyday life. Admittedly, the most politicized continue to protest, but the hundreds of incarcerations that have taken place during demonstrations have succeeded in intimidating the majority. Especially since a slinger can be arrested the day of his action, but also later, thanks to facial recognition and the thousands of cameras now installed all over Moscow.