Russian prosecutor's office demands 13 years in prison against opponent Navalny

Europe 1 with AFP 9:54 p.m., March 15, 2022

Russian prosecutors have requested a 13-year prison sentence with a fine of 1.2 million rubles against Alexei Navalny, a Russian lawyer and political activist known to be a staunch opponent of Vladimir Putin. The man survived a serious poisoning in 2020 for which he accuses the Kremlin.

The Russian prosecutor's office requested on Tuesday 13 years in prison against the opponent Alexeï Navalny, sworn enemy of the Kremlin and victim of the exacerbated repression of critical voices of President Vladimir Putin at work in Russia. This 45-year-old anti-corruption activist has been on trial since mid-February in the confines of his penal colony 100 km east of Moscow for charges of "fraud" and "insult" to a magistrate which he considers fictitious.

It is from this improvised court behind bars that prosecutor Nadejda Tikhonova requested a new heavy sentence against the opponent, who barely survived a serious poisoning in 2020 for which he accuses the Kremlin. “I request that a sentence of deprivation of liberty of 13 years be imposed,” declared the prosecutor, quoted by Russian news agencies. She also requested an additional sanction of “two years of limitation of freedom” and a fine of 1.2 million rubles (9,500 euros at the current rate).

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"You won't put everyone in prison! Go ahead, even ask for 113 years, you don't scare me, or people like me," retorted Alexeï Navalny during the hearing, quoted by his team on social media. Since February 2021, Alexeï Navalny has been serving a two and a half year prison sentence for another “fraud” case dating from 2014.

Opposition to the conflict in Ukraine

One of the opponent's exiled lieutenants, Leonid Volkov, reacted immediately by affirming that the government wanted, with this indictment, that he remain in prison "until the death of Vladimir Putin or Navalny". “He is an absolutely innocent man who is being tried because he tells the truth about Putin’s criminal regime,” Lyubov Sobol, another exiled ally of Alexeï Navalny, added on Twitter. Investigators accuse him of embezzling millions of rubles in donations to his anti-corruption organizations and of "contempt of court" during one of his previous hearings.

In 2020, the opponent, renowned for his viral investigations denouncing the negligence and corruption of Russian elites, spent several months convalescing in Germany after narrowly surviving poisoning by a powerful nerve agent, from which he holds Vladimir Putin for responsible. He was arrested in January 2021 upon his return to Russia and sentenced to two and a half years in prison in an old “fraud” case. A conviction which caused an outcry in Western countries and sanctions against Moscow.

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In June 2021, Alexeï Navalny's main organizations were described as "extremist", a decision which led to their closure and prosecutions against many of their activists. Many of them are now in exile. In the process, the Russian authorities increased their pressure on opposition media and NGOs critical of the government.

Alexei Navalny spoke out against the Russian army's offensive in Ukraine and called on his supporters to demonstrate for peace despite the risks of arrest and serious legal proceedings. “Russia is big, many people live there, and not everyone is ready to abandon their future and that of their children like cowards,” Alexeï Navalny said on Tuesday. “Everyone must act. In their own way, as best they can, given the circumstances, but act,” he then insisted on Instagram, still regarding the Russian intervention in Ukraine. “War is the work of despotism. Those who want to fight war must only fight despotism,” he concluded, saying he cited the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

Since the start of the Russian intervention in Ukraine on February 24, nearly 15,000 peace demonstrators have been arrested in Russia, according to the specialized NGO OVD-Info. At the same time, the Russian authorities tightened the screws further, passing two laws punishing any denunciation of the conflict with heavy prison sentences. On the internet, one of the last spaces for free expression in Russia, the authorities are also continuing their efforts and have blocked the social networks Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, as well as several independent Russian-speaking media.