Confined to a glass case in a Moscow court, Alexei Navalny scolded the judge, mocked a prison officer and fought with the prosecutor.
Then, at the end of a long day in court, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic showed his softer side, smiling at his wife Yulia and drawing a heart on the glass of his cage.
Since his arrest in mid-January, after returning from Germany, where he was treated for poisoning, Navalny has turned a series of hearings in Russia’s normally colorless courts into political theater acts that have made headlines.
In challenging, mocking and affectionate relays, the 44-year-old trained lawyer used court appearances to build his support, anger his opponents and create an image of Russia’s prominent political prisoner.
Navalny turned his February 2 hearing – when a judge ordered him to be jailed for nearly three years on charges of fraud – into a violent attack on Putin.
Sneering at the Russian leader about allegations that the nervous agent Novichok used to poison him had been put on his underwear, Navalny told the court that Putin “would go down in history as a underwear poisoner”.
He fought with officials and prosecutors in court, mocking his claims that he should have appeared for probation appointments, pointing out that he was in a coma.
His making of heart signs for his wife, just before Judge Natalya Repnikova read the sentence, was published in newspapers around the world.
Much of what Navalny does in court is carefully calculated, said Moscow-based political observer Konstantin Kalachev, comparing his February 2 speech to that of a revolutionary in Tsarist Russia.
“He is working on his image,” said the head of the Group of Political Experts.
– ‘Political prostitutes’ –
But some of Navalny’s explosions in court are clearly impulsive, added Kalachev.
“We are all human and sometimes he gets carried away by his emotions,” he said.
Days after being sentenced to prison, Navalny went to trial again on charges of defaming a World War II veteran, part of a group of Russians in a pro-Kremlin video that Navalny described as “traitors”.
He once again stole the show, mocking the judge and fighting with relatives of the veteran, whose family accused him of being “political prostitutes” and using the 94-year-old woman.
Judge Vera Akimova at one point threatened to take Navalny out of court and the hearing was suspended when the veteran said he was not feeling well and an ambulance was called.
Navalny was back in court on Friday for the next defamation hearing, showing no sign of backing off while berating the judge.
“Stop being embarrassed and enroll in some courses to improve your knowledge of the laws of the Russian Federation,” said Navalny, supporting a request by his lawyer for the judge to be replaced.
If the February 2 hearing was a political drama, the defamation trial has become a comedy, said political analyst Anton Orekh.
But the sightings are also Navalny’s only chance to continue fighting the authorities.
“If you do not have the opportunity to participate in polls and speak in parliament, if you do not have the opportunity to take to the streets peacefully and express your feelings and thoughts, if you have been deprived of access to state TV channels, the only thing left it’s a court, “wrote Orekh on his blog.
Since emerging as the Kremlin’s top critic a decade ago, Navalny has stood in stark contrast to Putin and described the 68-year-old as out of reach.
In the age of social media, Navalny’s theatricality in court is especially attractive to young Russians, Kalachev said.
“Putin is losing support among young people, research shows that,” he said. “For young people, he is like an alien, a man of the moon.”
Navalny “speaks the same language as young people, they can see themselves in him,” added Kalachev. “His clothes, his tastes, his wife, his family … he represents the urban middle class.”
tbm-pop-as / mm / ach