Today was the twelfth day of the trial of Alexei Navalny. At first, it was little different from the previous ones. The court examined the evidence of Navalny’s alleged crimes — and it was still bogus. The linguistic analysis of the supposed insults turned out to be a sham: it had been carried out by a math teacher. And the bank statements from Navalny’s accounts were obtained illegally, which means they cannot be used in court. But neither the judge nor the prosecutor seems concerned. The order from above was to jail Navalny — so they will.
Then Navalny himself was questioned. Alexei reminded the court of the obvious: that this case is fabricated. That the alleged victims are either planted fraudsters or gave testimony under pressure. That criminal cases are invented against him first, and only afterward do they start gathering materials to fit them. In particular, Alexei answered the question of why he created the organization called the Anti-Corruption Foundation:
“Why did I create this organization? I created it — please put this on the record — because I hate this government. Because I consider it disgusting and thieving.”
Prosecutor Tikhonova spent a long time trying to get Navalny to explain exactly how donations were allocated during the presidential campaign. Alexei repeated several times that he did not receive a salary from the ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation) and was not involved in any financial matters. How can you accuse someone of financial fraud when that person did not even have access to the money? And besides, as all readers of this blog know, we have always reported promptly and in detail on every ruble our supporters sent us.
Taking the opportunity, Navalny also reminded the court about the real criminals. For example, Prosecutor Chaika, who covered up for the Tsapok and Tsepovyaz gang. Or the war criminal Alexander Borodai, a hero of the so-called “Russian world” (a Kremlin-backed nationalist concept), who bought himself an apartment in Dubai. And yet it is not they whom the authorities are trying to imprison, but Navalny — for daring to use the terrifying word “wow” in court. The discussion also turned to Putin’s palace. The prosecutor asked how Navalny had learned about the palace. Alexei replied that Putin’s palace is rather hard to hide.
“A gigantic building is being constructed on a cliff. The road to this building is being built by the Ministry of Defense. The whole thing is guarded by the FSO (Federal Protective Service). So the question is: whose country house are they building there? Well, it’s pretty obvious whose... People knew there was a palace belonging to Putin in Gelendzhik. But they did not imagine it was so enormous that it even had a separate room for processing eggs.”
The next hearing will take place on March 15, when closing arguments will begin. After that, only Alexei’s final statement and the verdict will remain.
The longer this so-called trial goes on, the clearer it becomes that there is no evidence of fraud by Navalny. Just as there was no fraud in the first place. This case is entirely made up. Navalny is Putin’s main personal enemy. Putin already tried to kill him, and now he is imprisoning him. And we must not stay silent. Freedom for Alexei Navalny.