MOSCOW (AP) – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny faced an audience on Tuesday that could end with him being sent to prison for years and sparking more protests against the Kremlin.
Navalny, 44, anti-corruption investigator and most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on January 17 on his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nervous agent poisoning attributed to The Kremlin. Russian authorities deny the charge and claim, despite tests by several European laboratories, that they have no evidence that he was poisoned.
Russia’s prison service alleges that Navalny violated the conditions of probation in his sentence suspended from a 2014 money laundering conviction that he rejected for being politically motivated. He asked the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow to make his three and a half year suspended sentence one that he was to serve in prison.
Navalny and his lawyers argued that while he was recovering from poisoning in Germany, he could not personally register with the Russian authorities, as required by his parole. Navalny also insisted that his rights to due process were grossly violated during his arrest and described his arrest as a parody of justice.
“I returned to Moscow after finishing treatment,” said Navalny during Tuesday’s hearing. “What else could I have done?”
Navalny’s arrest has sparked massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends, in which tens of thousands took to the streets to demand his release, shouting slogans against Putin. Police detained more than 5,750 people during Sunday’s demonstrations, including more than 1,900 in Moscow, the largest number the country has seen since Soviet times. Most were released after receiving subpoenas and may face fines or prison terms of seven to 15 days. Several people faced criminal charges for alleged violence against the police.
Navalny’s team called for another demonstration on Tuesday outside the Moscow court building, but the police were in force there, isolating nearby streets and making random arrests. More than 230 people were arrested, according to the OVD-Info group that monitors the prisons.
Some supporters of Navalny even managed to approach the court building. A young woman climbed a large pile of snow across the street from the courthouse and held up a poster saying “Freedom for Navalny”. Less than a minute later, a police officer took her away.
After his arrest, Navalny’s team released a two-hour video on YouTube, featuring an opulent Black Sea residence supposedly built for Putin. The video has been viewed more than 100 million times, fueling discontent as ordinary Russians struggle with an economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic and widespread corruption during Putin’s years in office.
Putin insisted last week that neither he nor his relatives own any of the properties mentioned in the video, and his longtime confidant, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, said he is the owner.
As part of efforts to crack down on protests, officials are targeting Navalny associates and activists across the country. His brother Oleg, the main ally Lyubov Sobol and several others were placed under house arrest for two months and face criminal charges of violating coronavirus restrictions.
Navalny’s arrest and crackdown on protests sparked international outrage, with Western officials calling for his release and condemning the arrest of protesters.
“Sweden and the EU are concerned about the situation of democracy, civil society and human rights in Russia,” said Swedish Chancellor Ann Linde, current president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, during talks with the minister Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.
The diplomat said Navalny’s poisoning and the Russian authorities’ response to street protests will be part of the discussion.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who will visit Moscow later this week, criticized the arrests and disproportionate use of force against protesters, emphasizing that Russia must comply with its international human rights commitments.
Russia rejected criticism from US and EU officials for meddling in its internal affairs and said Navalny’s current situation is a matter of procedure for the court, not an issue for the government.
More than a dozen Western diplomats attended Tuesday’s hearing, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova accused their presence of being part of the West’s efforts to contain Russia, adding that it could be an attempt to exert “psychological pressure” on the judge.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia is ready for a dialogue on Navalny, but severely warned that it would not take Western criticism into account.
“We are ready to explain everything patiently, but we will not react to mentor-type statements or take them into account,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.