“The whole world knows that this trial has nothing to do with the law,” Navalny’s ally Ruslan Shaveddinov said in a live commentary of the court hearing on YouTube immediately after the verdict was announced. “We see that Alexei will be held in prison for many more years; they hope to do that. We cannot close our eyes as we see that everything is heading towards a very sad end for our country.”
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The hearing took place at a penal colony in Pokrov, some 70 miles east of Moscow, where Navalny is already serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for violating his probation while seeking medical treatment in Germany after being poisoned.
It is not yet clear whether the two sentences will be merged. Shaveddinov said the lawyers are trying to work this out with the judge but suspect the total sentence Navalny will have to serve will be around 12 years.
In that trial, the opposition leader was accused of flouting the court in last year’s defamation case against war veteran Ignat Artemenko and of being grossly defrauded over alleged misuse of donations received from his anti-corruption foundation. Navalny and his team said the charges were fabricated to silence him and criticized the trials as fraud.
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Prosecutors have requested that he be transferred to a maximum security prison for committing “crimes” in the penal colony. His team fears this will cut into already limited access to Navalny as he is likely to be relocated to the farthest corner of the country.
“Without public protection, Alexei will face those who have already tried to kill him,” Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh tweeted ahead of the hearing. “And nothing will stop her from trying again. So now we are not only talking about Alexei’s freedom, but also about his life.”
“It will be virtually impossible to access and keep in touch with Alexei,” she added.
In a message on Instagram, his wife Yulia said that after 20 years of marriage, they would also overcome this phrase. “The number ‘nine’ means nothing. I love you my dearest person on this planet and I can’t stop being proud of you for so many years.”
Navalny’s movement and his anti-corruption foundation, which have conducted countless investigations into the wealth of Russia’s political elite, including President Vladimir Putin, were branded extremist and banned last year. Many of Navalny’s allies have fled the country to avoid persecution.
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However, Navalny continues to speak out by sending messages through his legal team, which are posted on his social media accounts, which have amassed millions of followers. He also took the opportunity to make a closing statement in court to criticize Putin, denounce the war in Ukraine and call on Russians to protest.
“The consequence of this war will be a collapse, the collapse of our country,” Navalny said in a March 16 hearing that was broadcast to journalists via patchy video link. “That sounds a bit wild. But the expression ‘Russian-Ukrainian War’ also sounds pretty wild.”
“You can’t lock everyone up. Go ahead, ask for 113 years [in prison] and give it to me – you won’t scare me or anyone else like me,” he added.
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“Russia is big, there are many people here, and not everyone is as cowardly as you are about betraying their future and the future of their children,” he said, referring to Judge Margarita Kotova and the prosecutor’s office. A few days before Tuesday’s hearing, Putin promoted Kotova by signing a presidential decree.
Navalny, a leading opposition figure in Russia, was poisoned in August 2020 with what European laboratories identified as the banned military nerve agent Novichok. After recovering in Germany, he returned to Russia in early 2021 and was immediately arrested, sparking mass protests for his support. The authorities launched an unprecedented crackdown on his supporters and the movement he has led since the late 2000s.
Navalny held Putin personally responsible for the attack and subsequent pursuit. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied the allegations.