Not the Château d'If, but the Hilton hotel in the city of Kirov.
At this trial, no one is embarrassed and no one is even pretending otherwise. We announced the schedule for opening our campaign headquarters (the first one opens in St. Petersburg on Saturday), and the judge immediately decided to discuss travel restrictions with us. And this came not just as a surprise to us, but even to the prosecutors, who had not requested any preventive measure at all.
The prosecutors may not need it, but citizen Putin does—he doesn't like anything about our plan to open headquarters across the country. No wonder: every one of those headquarters will be telling the truth about him.
So when the judge returned an hour later, he delivered a truly astonishing ruling: Navalny (and Ofitserov as well) might flee and obstruct justice, and therefore he is forbidden from leaving his temporary place of residence—the Hilton hotel in the city of Kirov.
Such trivialities as who is supposed to pay for this, the fact that I actually live in another city and my family is there, or why any of this is necessary at all—given that even in the first trial no preventive measure was imposed—were not discussed.
In effect, the ruling says this: you are not allowed to travel around the country.
It's important to understand that this could be quite a long process: until the final statement, then until the verdict, then until it takes legal effect. If they want to, they can drag it out for as long as three months.
My position here is simple. I told the court straight away, exactly as it is: I consider the ruling unlawful, I will not sign any travel restriction pledge, and I do not intend to comply with it. On Saturday, I plan to be at the opening of the St. Petersburg headquarters.
Obviously, Judge Vtyurin's ruling legalizes a merry game of cops and robbers. They can detain me, pull me off trains and planes, and so on.
So here I'm counting on you—this is our shared election campaign, and I'm sure we will be able to keep it going even if they lock me up not just in the Hilton, but within four walls altogether.
Sign up. We need signatures and volunteers.