Moscow – Russian opposition leader and fierce critic of the Kremlin Alexey Navalny was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on Tuesday in a court case that he condemned as politically motivated. The court gave him credit for about a year for the sentence he had already served under house arrest, saying he would be forced to spend another two years and eight months behind bars.
In a speech to the Moscow court before the decision was handed down, Navalny accused Russian authorities, and President Vladimir Putin directly, of being responsible for his persecution – and his poisoning by a deadly nervous agent.
“They are arresting one person to scare millions,” said Navalny. “This is not a show of strength, it is a show of weakness.”
He promised to continue his years-long struggle against the Putin government behind bars.
“My life is not worth two cents, but I will do everything to make the law prevail,” he said.
Your supporters – more than 8,000 of whom were detained by police in protests in recent weeks – immediately called for a new show of support, urging people to return to the streets on Tuesday night.
Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption investigator who became a stone in Putin’s shoe, was arrested on January 17 immediately after his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from poisoning with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
He says the attack took place in Russia, on Putin’s orders – a claim the Kremlin denied.
Navalny was found guilty on Tuesday for violating the terms of a previous 3.5-year suspended sentence stemming from a previous conviction that he has always rejected as politically motivated.
According to the prison service and Russian prosecutors, Navalny made no contact with prison officials while recovering in Germany at the end of last year.
Navalny’s defense team clearly noted during Tuesday’s hearing that three years ago, the European Court of Human Rights found its 2014 conviction arbitrary and irrational. Russia paid him compensation according to that decision.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement saying the United States is “deeply concerned” about Tuesday’s decision and asked the Russian government “to immediately and unconditionally release Navalny, as well as hundreds of other Russian citizens. unjustly detained in recent weeks for exercising their rights, including the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly ”.
Navalny’s conviction for violating his bail terms was delivered just two days after tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets for the second consecutive weekend to demand Navalny’s release and to condemn the Putin government.
Navalny’s associates asked people to meet near the courthouse on Tuesday morning in a show of support and to demand his release.
The Moscow City Court, where the trial took place, has been isolated by hundreds of riot police since the early hours of the morning. Several streets around the building have been blocked and city officials have also closed access to Red Square and other central squares near the Kremlin, fearing further protests.
About 300 people were detained throughout the day, many before they even got close to the court.
Navalny’s arrest last month sparked international outrage. More than a dozen Western diplomats attended Tuesday’s hearing, prompting criticism from Russia’s Foreign Ministry. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called her presence an attempt to exert “psychological pressure” on the judge.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denied Russian allegations of interference in an interview with NBC News on Monday and blamed Putin for the unrest in Russia, which has been in charge of power in Russia for more than 20 years.
“The Russian government makes a big mistake if it believes this is about us,” said Blinken. “It’s about the government. It’s about the frustration that the Russian people feel about corruption, about autocracy, and I think they need to look inside, not outside.”
Blinken said the Biden government is still considering its response to the situation in Russia.