Today was the fourth day of Navalny’s trial. And today Russia invaded Ukraine and launched a full-scale war there.
Putin made the decision to launch a military invasion long ago, and it was then carefully planned. There is now no doubt that Navalny’s trial was scheduled for this same period deliberately. Putin wants the verdict delivered in silence. It benefits him if the trial attracts as little attention as possible.
Navalny is in prison in complete isolation, and he is even being tried inside the penal colony. He has no other opportunity to speak out except through this very trial. So please listen to what Alexei said today, and help spread his words.
After that, the trial continued as usual. First, they questioned another prosecution witness — Lyudmila Laktyushina, a teacher at a men’s monastery in the Moscow region. She said that she knew from the internet that Navalny had insulted the judge and had “compared the court to a fascist dictatorship or something like that.” Laktyushina said she was deeply offended by this. She claimed that in doing so, Navalny had discredited the judicial system in front of a huge number of media outlets.
Apparently, the fact that she was giving this testimony in a prison did not strike her as discrediting the judicial system.
Then it was the turn of the alleged victims. The first to testify was Alexander Koshelev, a handyman from Ramenki, who transferred 1,020,000 rubles to ACF. In cash. Through a Sberbank branch. While earning a monthly salary of 40,000 rubles.
Just a week after making the transfer, Koshelev decided he had been deceived and filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee.
At previous hearings, the prosecution witnesses did not testify about the substance of the case at all — they simply attacked Navalny. But now even the alleged victim could say nothing of substance. He could not recall any details about how he made the transfer, where he got such a sum, or where he had even found the account number to send it to — we never published that account. Instead, Koshelev started talking about protests. He claimed that his daughter had attended protests, was detained there, and now takes antidepressants. And that Navalny was to blame.
When it was pointed out to him that it was not Navalny who detained his daughter, he ignored the remark and kept insisting that Alexei had deceived his family.
It also turned out that Koshelev’s memories about his family were rather hazy. For example, he does not remember exactly how many children he has. During the pre-trial investigation, he said two; in court, he said three. But that was only half the problem — after two hours of questioning, Koshelev suddenly claimed that it was his son, not his daughter, who had gone to the protest.
When Koshelev was asked to explain the contradictions in his testimony, he rubbed his face, sighed wearily, and plaintively repeated: “I came, filed the complaint, and the rest is none of my concern.”
Clearly, he really did just “come and file a complaint.” In 2013, Koshelev was detained on charges of possessing drugs — amphetamine. By ordinary standards, the punishment was very light: one year. It appears that from that point on, Koshelev began cooperating with the police, who have now made him appear as a victim in the criminal case against Navalny.
After Koshelev, the court questioned Andrei Mishchenkov. He is our former employee who worked at ACF until 2015. And despite also being called to court as a prosecution witness, he stated that the Foundation’s activities had always been entirely lawful.
After Mishchenkov’s questioning, the court resumed reading out the case materials. The prosecution said that this concluded the presentation of its evidence. That means the defense’s evidence comes next, and then the verdict. It could come as early as next week.
To sum up: 4 hearings. 1 alleged victim — a plumber who made a donation of more than a million rubles and does not know how or why he made it. 5 prosecution witnesses. Two of them are paid-off bloggers with no connection whatsoever to this criminal case. Two more are former ACF employees who stated that Navalny had never engaged in any illegal activity. And the last is a woman concerned about the insulted judge.
This is the best the Investigative Committee could find for this trial. Is it clear now why it is being conducted under these conditions? They have nothing at all to present. They could not find a single real fact or a single real person to support their accusations in any way. And knowing this perfectly well in advance, they tried as best they could to hide these proceedings.
Right now, the world’s attention is focused on Ukraine. What is happening is monstrous and unthinkable. We need to speak about it as much as possible.
But right now, Alexei Navalny is being tried in prison — a man who stands for a peaceful, prosperous Russia. A man who has spent years fighting Russia’s greatest evil — Vladimir Putin. And who is ready to give up not only his freedom in that struggle, but his life as well.
As long as there are people resisting this evil, it has not won. And we must resist with all our strength and under no circumstances remain silent.
We will continue telling you about what is happening at this trial. We will continue speaking about what is happening in Ukraine — subscribe to our new channel, Popular Politics. We will continue publishing investigations. And we ask you very much to share this.
Freedom for Alexei Navalny.