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Yulia Navalnaya arrives at Moscow court, where her husband Aleksei could be sentenced to several years in prison today.
Yulia Navalnaya arriving at court
Riot police keeping the press at bay before Navalny’s court hearing
I’m in the courtroom: Navalny is here, in the glass box for defendants, in slacks and a dark hoodie, standing and scanning the gathered journalists. “I’m proud of you,” he says to his wife, over the microphone.
The court has let in several dozen journalists, including Russian state media, foreign media, and independent online outlets. But photo/video barred. Diplomats are also observing. The judge has entered and the hearing has started.
Current address? the judge asks. “Pre-trial Detention Facility No. 1,” Navalny deadpans.
Navalny’s attorneys are arguing that their client returned to Moscow as soon as he finished his treatment and would have reported to parole authorities immediately had he not been arrested. Prosecutors want prison time for Navalny for violating parole.
The scene: grand wood-panelled courtroom, judge in robes under a double-headed eagle with scales of justice on either side; depictions of Montesquieu and other luminaries on teal walls. Seven rows of journalists, Navalny standing and smiling in his glass box.
The court has recessed for 10 minutes. Everyone asked to stay in their seats as Navalny paces in his glass box, looks up to examine Montesquieu and other wall decorations.
A prosecutor in a light-blue mask and navy uniform is reading, barely audibly, from a stack of paper, describing each of Navalny's alleged parole violations.
The prosecutor says the “information-telecommunications network known as the ‘internet’” showed that Navalny was moving freely across Germany while not reporting for his parole last year.
Correction: that's a prison service official, Aleksandr Yermolin, in the navy-blue uniform and mask.
The judge asked the prosecution a series of questions. Why didn't prison service seek action against Navalny earlier? Prison official Yermolin says: There was hope that Navalny “would get on the road to reform.”
Navalny’s lawyer asks why the prison service only tried to contact him — by text message — on Dec. 28, a day before his client was declared wanted. Prison service official struggles to respond.
Navalny addresses prison official: “Say, comrade captain, do you respect the President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin?” Judge sustains prosecutor’s objection to the question.
Navalny, poking at the glass, says even Putin publicly said he was being treated in Germany. “What more could I have done” to satisfy prison service? he asks.
“On what grounds do you say you didn’t know about my location?” Navalny says to prison official through mic in his box, raising voice. “Why do you lie to, mislead the court?”
“I wasn’t able to reach the prison service, or you personally, because you all turned your phones off,” Mikhailova, one of Navalny’s lawyers, says, referring to his Jan. 17 arrest.
Our @INechepurenko is outside the courthouse https://twitter.com/INechepurenko/status/1356540919651196928
Judge Repnikova has been reading out documents in the case. Meanwhile, Kremlin spox Peskov: “We hope that there will not be something as silly as tying the future of Russian-European relations to the case of this pre-trial detention center inhabitant.” https://tass.ru/politika/10602803
Judge declares a two-hour break. “Is it possible to send someone to McDonald’s?” Navalny says.
Line of cars with diplomatic plates at the courthouse. Foreign Ministry spox Zakharova says the presence of diplomats observing today’s hearing amounts to “interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state.”
Hearing starts back up; Navalny delivers an emotional speech, jabbing his finger against the glass: “With a maniac’s tenacity, our government wants to lock me up … The reason for all this is the hate and fear of one man who lives in a bunker.”
Navalny to judge: “It was Putin who, using the Federal Security Service, attempted to kill me … People now know this, and many more will know it, and this drives the corrupt little man in his bunker crazy.”
Navalny in court: “No matter how much [Putin] portrays himself a great geopolitician…his main resentment against me now is that he will go down in history as a poisoner. There was Alexander the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise. Now we’ll have Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants.”
At this point, prosecutor tries to interrupt Navalny’s speech, but he continues. “The main thing about this trial is not even how it will end, will I go to jail…The main reason this is happening is to scare a huge number of people. One person is jailed to scare millions.”
Navalny: “Millions and hundreds of thousands cannot be locked up. I really hope that more and more people will recognize this. And when they recognize this — and that moment will come — all this will fall apart, because you cannot lock up the whole country.”
The Navalny attacks the prosecutor and the judge, for donning a uniform and robe and being part of the system. “This isn’t a political rally,” the judge interrupts. “Let’s not do politics here.”
Navalny finishes by thanking those who “fight and are not afraid.” “They have the same rights as you do. We are also citizens, and we demand a normal justice system, to be dealt with normally, to be able to participate in elections.”
Navalny, ending: “There are many good things in Russia, and the best thing is those people who are not afraid, who don’t look down at the table and who will never give our country away to a small bunch of sold-out officials.”
Now being cross-examined, Navalny directs his vitriol at the prosecutor, Yekaterina Frolova: “You are an honorable daughter of the regime; you lie in every word.”
On the hearing so far: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/world/europe/russia-navalny-putin.html?referringSource=articleShare
The prosecutor has offered her argument, saying Navalny “did not get on the path of reform,” showed a lack of respect for the law, and was guilt of “systematic violations of obligations placed on him by the court.”
Prosecutor calls for Navalny to be imprisoned for 3.5 years minus length of his earlier house arrest, which was about a year. Judge has retired to her chambers for the decision. We wait in the courtroom.
The decision will come no earlier than two hours from now, were told.
We're back in the courtroom for the Navalny decision. TV network cameras have been brought in.
Navalny has entered the courtroom, wearing a black puffy jacket, led by handcuffs by a policeman.
Using two hands, he flashes a heart shape toward his wife Yulia in the first row.
