The Kremlin critic Navalny has to answer to the court again. This time he is accused, among other things, of founding and financing an extremist organization. He faces up to 30 years in prison.
This time, Alexei Navalny was tried not in a regular courtroom, but directly in the Melekhovo penal camp – among other things for downplaying fascism and calls for extremism, but above all for founding and financing an extremist organization. Not only his anti-corruption foundation was classified as such in 2021. The list also included the political staffs that the Kremlin critic had set up across Russia.
The prosecution has compiled more than 700 pages of material: 196 volumes, which are intended to lead to what Navalny’s comrades-in-arms believe has long been agreed: to another conviction of the opposition politician. “In the end, the judge will come out and read the decision: 30 years in a prison camp under difficult conditions,” says Ivan Zhdanov, the exiled former head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation and a man wanted in Russia, in a YouTube video.
Navalny employees also have to go to the penal camp
A verdict from last week shows that the fears are justified. Lilia Chanysheva, who headed the Navalny staff in Ufa for four years, was sentenced to seven and a half years in a prison camp for founding or participating in an extremist organization. She stopped her work immediately when it became apparent that the staff would be classified as extremist.
For Chanysheva, this is a clearly politically motivated verdict – one that will not prevent her from continuing to fight corruption and lawlessness. Like Navalny, she also used the process to make herself heard publicly again. She called on people to stand up for a free, peaceful Russia despite the pressure: “Believe in yourself. Work for positive change. Write letters. I need you. Other political prisoners need you.”
solidarity actions are dangerous
However, openly standing up for political prisoners in Russia requires courage. Nevertheless, at the beginning of June there were solidarity actions for him and others in more than 20 Russian cities on the occasion of Alexei Navalny’s birthday. Most lasted only a few minutes – then the security forces stepped in. The civil rights portal OVD-Info registered 126 arrests.
Alexej Navalny himself has been behind bars since January 2021, since his return from Germany, where he had recovered from the serious effects of poisoning. He has been convicted multiple times. His imprisonment now totals nine years.
Again and again solitary confinement
The time in the penal camp under difficult conditions has visibly affected him. Even if he is unbroken in the social networks in which his team publishes his posts: The 47-year-old looks emaciated and sickly, probably also because, as he testified in court in February, he has been in almost continuously for months penned up in a small punishment cell: “I was told: You can’t get out of the punishment cell at all. Three days in the punishment cell because I didn’t close a button. Five days because I had my hands behind my back. Then seven days because I didn’t introduce myself properly.”
He reacted with absurd letters to the administration of the penal camp. Sometimes, he writes, he demands a megaphone, sometimes a kangaroo. He tries everything to attract attention. In order not to be forgotten.
He will also use the process now to make a public statement. Provided at least one video transmission is allowed. He has no illusions about the outcome of the trial: “I will be in prison as long as this system exists, as long as Putin is in power.” He calculated that a regular release would not come until the spring of 2051 if another maximum sentence were to be imposed.