From the editor
If there is still uncertainty about whether Vladimir Putin will launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the coming days, there is very little about what the outcome of Alexei Navalny’s latest trial will be. The opposition leader, who survived novichok poisoning in August 2020, was sentenced to nearly three years in prison a year ago. But that isn’t enough for Putin, who wants him out of the way for the foreseeable future. The new trial is bizarrely taking place in the prison in Vladimir Oblast where Navalny is being held, with the gaunt-looking defendant wearing his prison uniform. He faces a sentence of up to 15 years for alleged embezzlement and also “insulting a judge” at his previous trial.
Alexei Navalny speaks at his trial in prison in Vladimir Oblast
Navalny’s wife Yulia was allowed into the makeshift courtroom, while most journalists had to sit in another room watching proceedings on a TV screen with bad sound. Despite the hardships he has obviously been through as a prisoner first designated as “prone to escape” and now as a “terrorist”, Navalny was on his usual fighting form, telling the judge, Margarita Kotova, that the worst crime he could commit would be to be afraid of the Kremlin and its foot soldiers. He insisted that he wasn’t afraid of anything and called on people to continue donating to his Foundation for Fighting Corruption, although it has been banned and deemed extremist. “When I insulted your Putin by not only surviving but coming back he said, so, he thinks he's so great, let him go to prison,” Navalny said. Government ministers are dollar millionaires and thieves who should be exposed, he added.
The prosecution will be presenting four people who claim that they donated to the Foundation for Fighting Corruption under false pretences after being inspired by Navalny’s videos about Kremlin corruption, including “Don’t Call Him Dimon,” about the wealth of former Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, and “Putin’s Palace,” about a luxurious residence in Gelendzhik on the Black Sea. Navalny said in court that he was living on about $1,700 a month in the five years before he went to prison. Prosecutors claim he used the donations as his own money, and that he should not have solicited funds for a presidential campaign in 2017-18 as he knew that he would be barred from the election because of a criminal conviction.
A prosecutor also read out 104 of Navalny’s phrases that supposedly insulted a judge, including “Oh my God,” and “Unbelievable”. Navalny ridiculed the holding of the trial in prison, saying that a media outlet had analysed 9 million hearings and found that the Moscow city court had held external sessions in just 0.01 percent of the cases. “Not once in the history of the Moscow city court, or the history of any Russian court, or the history of any court in the Soviet Union has there been an external session in another region of the Russian Federation, and still less on the territory of a prison,” he said. The trial was adjourned until Monday so that Navalny could have his quarterly long visit with his wife. There’s no rush: he isn’t going anywhere.
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Russia threatens “military-technical” response to US
Russia has said in a new document that it will be “forced to respond” with “military-technical measures” if the US continues to refuse to agree legally-binding security guarantees, including a promise that Ukraine will never become a NATO member. Yesterday Russian-backed forces in Donbass shelled a school and a kindergarten, while Ukrainian banks and the Defence Ministry were subjected to cyberattacks this week. On Monday Putin met Sergei Shoigu and Sergei Lavrov and discussed the “completion of military exercises”, but despite Kremlin claims that troops are returning to bases, NATO says it has seen no signs of de-escalation on Ukraine’s border. At a press conference with Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow Putin said a genocide was taking place in Donbass. The US is relocating its embassy in Kyiv to Lviv in western Ukraine due to the threat of a Russian invasion.
Speaking after Russia expelled the deputy US ambassador to Moscow, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the UN Security Council: “Our information indicates clearly that [Russian] forces, including ground troops, aircraft, ships, are preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in the coming days. We don’t know precisely how things will play out, but here’s what the world can expect to see unfold. In fact, it’s unfolding right now.
“First, Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack. This could be a violent event that Russia will blame on Ukraine, or an outrageous accusation that Russia will level against the Ukrainian government. We don’t know exactly the form it will take. It could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia. The invented discovery of the mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians, or a fake - even a real - attack using chemical weapons. Russia may describe this event as ethnic cleansing, or a genocide, making a mockery of a concept that we in this chamber do not take lightly.”
Zyuganov briefly hospitalised with Covid
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, 77, was in hospital for a few days with Covid at the same time as LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, 75, who reportedly needs a long recovery. Zyuganov said that the omicron situation in the Duma reminded him of measles, which doesn’t go away until everyone has been infected. “On one day I found out that 300 people in the Duma were sick, apparently there wasn’t a single infection-free office,” he said. Yesterday Russia reported 180,622 Covid cases and 790 deaths.
Freelance journalist gets six-year prison sentence in Crimea
The Simferopol city court in occupied Crimea has sentenced freelance journalist and contributor to Radio Svoboda Vladyslav Yesypenko to six years in prison for the alleged possession and transport of explosives. Yesypenko is a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen. He was initially arrested in March 2021 on a charge of collecting information for Ukrainian intelligence. During his trial Yesypenko said he was stripped naked and electrocuted by the FSB. Before his sentencing he told the court that the authorities “want to discredit the work of freelance journalists who really want to show the things that really happen in Crimea.”
Two Crimean Tatars get long prison sentences
A military court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Crimean Tatars Zekirya Muratov and Vadim Bektemirov to 11 1/2 and 11 years in prison respectively for allegedly being members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir sect, which is banned in Russia. Muratov and Bektemirov were arrested in occupied Crimea in July 2020 along with five other Crimean Tatars. Russian authorities frequently use the charge of membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir against Crimean Tatars and other Muslims, and people convicted in such trials are recognised as political prisoners.