Aleksei Navalny appeared at a hearing today by video from a small room in Penal Colony No. 6 where he is being held, without the help of a lawyer. Three of his lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin, were arrested and two others left the country. During his testimony denouncing the Russian authorities, the audio was silenced and the entire video was later lost. Just yesterday, Navalny was informed by journalists about the arrest of three of his lawyers. A fourth, Alexander Fedulov, has left the country and not even a fifth, Olga Mikhailova, was in Russia when her office was raided recently and an arrest warrant was issued for her.
“I don’t understand what’s happening. I don’t have a lawyer. There isn’t even one. Nobody is allowed to visit me. “I am isolated and cut off from the world,” denounced the dissident, who did not even have permission to hold a radio. Authorities explained the power outage to Navalny’s statement as a power outage that affected the entire Melehovo region, where the region is located. One of the various cases in today’s hearing is the prison authorities’ complaint against Navalny over the costs incurred by the guards for gas to get to the court, another is the one brought by the prisoner to denounce the ill-treatment suffered, including not being able to do gymnastics every day. When Fedulov failed to appear today, Navalny asked Judge Dmitry Samoilov to search for news about him on Google to find out where he was. “Given the fact that they are being arrested from the left and the right, I don’t think anyone will come near me,” denounced the Putin opponent.