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Navalny: Russia Riot Police Amass in Moscow, St. Petersburg After Sentencing
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February 2, 2021
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4:11Now PlayingRussia jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny for two years and eight months Tuesday, ignoring Western calls to free him as President Vladimir Putin seeks to crush a resurgence in protests against his rule.
A Moscow court backed demands by penal authorities and prosecutors that Navalny, 44, serve time instead of the suspended sentence he received for a 2014 fraud conviction, for alleged violations of his probation. His 3 1/2-year sentence will be reduced by the 10 months he spent under house arrest in the case, the judge ruled.
Navalny was arrested in mid-January as he returned from Germany, where he recovered from a near-fatal attack involving a nerve agent applied to his underwear that he and Western governments blamed on Putin’s security services. The Kremlin denies responsibility. The prison term could isolate Navalny but risks escalating the confrontation between the authorities and opposition supporters.
“Someone didn’t want me to return to Russia a free man. We know who,” Navalny said in a defiant statement to the court, branding Putin “Vladimir the underpants poisoner.” His comments drew objections from the prosecutor and a warning from the judge that “this isn’t a demonstration here.”
Some of the biggest crowds in recent years have joined unsanctioned protests nationwide since Navalny was detained. The unrest has already resulted in more than 9,000 detentions at rallies in dozens of cities in the last two weekends. His supporters called for new protests near the Kremlin Tuesday evening.
After the ruling Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated calls for Navalny’s immediate release. “We will coordinate closely with our allies and partners to hold Russia accountable for failing to uphold the rights of its citizens,” he said.
In the U.K., Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “Today’s perverse ruling, targeting the victim of a poisoning rather than those responsible, shows Russia is failing to meet the most basic commitments expected of any responsible member of the international community.”
While the Kremlin’s move to jail Putin’s most prominent critic aims to put a stop to his political activities, Navalny’s backers say he’ll become a powerful symbol of resistance behind bars.
“There are lots of Navalnys,” Ivan Zhdanov, director of the activist’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said on TV Rain.
A major test will come when Russia holds parliamentary elections in September.
“The main point of this trial isn’t how it turns out for me -- putting me in jail isn’t hard,” Navalny told the court from the glass defendant’s cage. “They’re imprisoning one person to frighten millions.” His lawyers vowed to appeal.
In a separate case, Navalny also faces possible new fraud charges that could carry an additional 10-year punishment.
“This is a message to the security services that we’re firm and won’t give in,” said Alexei Makarkin, vice president at the Center for Political Technologies in Moscow. “And it’s a message to the opposition: international notoriety and support don’t give you even minimal immunity.”
Earlier Tuesday, riot police detained more than 350 protesters around the court, according to monitoring group OVD-Info.
“The opposition outside the system is seen by the Kremlin as a hostile force, a threat to national security, which requires harsh, merciless, repressive tactics against Navalny” and his allies, said Tatiana Stanovaya, head of political consultancy R.Politik. “This is only the beginning.”
Navalny received the suspended sentence in a fraud trial involving the Russian branch of French cosmetics company Yves Rocher that also led to a 3 1/2 year jail term for his younger brother, Oleg. Both men denied wrongdoing, and the European Court of Human Rights has called the case politically motivated.
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