I spent another two days in the defendant’s dock.
The trial is proceeding just as before: the so-called “prosecution witnesses,” called in one after another for questioning, keep systematically dismantling every argument made by the prosecution. Even the only witness over these two days who gave false testimony (that same lady—Opalev’s deputy—whom I refer to in the “wiretap” recording in less-than-polite terms) still ends up undermining the prosecution’s case and, when asked directly, “Was timber worth 16 million rubles stolen, or 16 million rubles in cash?” opens her eyes wide in astonishment and says: of course not, that’s absurd. You can see all this for yourself by watching the hearing videos or reading the live text coverage of the key moments: video, day 5 http://rapsinews.ru/judicial_mm/20130515/267341816.html live text, day 5 http://rapsinews.ru/judicial_analyst/20130515/267341615.html video, day 6 http://rapsinews.ru/judicial_mm/20130516/267375124.html live text, day 6 http://rapsinews.ru/judicial_analyst/20130516/267374633.html Or, if you don’t feel like spending too much time on it, you can just read the reports: Hearing of May 15: “You gave an interview and called my case political. You said that when the directors of the forestry enterprises heard about it, they got together and had a laugh,” Navalny reminded Natalya Koretnyuk, director of the Podosinovsky forestry enterprise. “That’s my personal opinion,” she clarified. “And besides, they didn’t laugh—they just got together and discussed it. I mean, it’s standard practice: every forestry enterprise has 15 to 20 clients, some pay a little more, some a little less.” “So this is political persecution?” Navalny уточнил. “I ask that this question be struck from the record!” the prosecutor said, rising from his seat. “I strongly ask that too,” Koretnyuk told Judge Blinov. http://lenta.ru/articles/2013/05/15/navalny/ Hearing of May 16: On Thursday, the Leninsky District Court in Kirov called the key prosecution witness in the case against opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who is suspected, along with former Vyatka Timber Company (VLK) director Pyotr Ofitserov, of embezzling 16.5 million rubles from Kirovles. Unlike the previous witnesses, former deputy general director of the state enterprise Larisa Bastrygina came well prepared, confidently and clearly laying out the prosecution’s version of events. However, after three hours of questioning by Navalny, Bastrygina repeated the phrase that most witnesses in this case had already used before her: “I don’t remember exactly.” http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2013/05/16_a_5324533.shtml Yevgeny Feldman’s photo reports for Novaya Gazeta: 15th http://www.novayagazeta.ru/photos/58128.html 16th http://www.novayagazeta.ru/photos/58136.html Outside the courthouse, too, life was full of events.
The action outside was being supplied by the Kirov police, worn out by the heat, Narzan mineral water, and, evidently, a steady stream of constant but contradictory instructions from Moscow. As I wrote before, every day the trial is underway at Kirov’s Leninsky District Court, there is a continuous one-person protest picket with an exhibition under the general title “Putin Is a Thief.” Previously, we displayed information about the “Putin billionaires” Timchenko and Rotenberg. This time, it was about theft connected with the Olympics. At first, the Kirov police couldn’t have cared less what exactly we were showing in our exhibition. The picket was authorized, and they simply stood nearby and kept order. In other words, they were doing what they were supposed to do. Then Moscow sternly told them: no “Putin Is a Thief”! Not allowed! So what were the police supposed to do? The picket was authorized; they couldn’t break it up. So in Kirov they came up with an innovative workaround: some citizen appears (we still haven’t figured out whether he’s real or fake) and files a police complaint several times a day alleging extremism.
The police then dispatch an investigative task force, which “inspects the scene” and confiscates, “for expert examination,” anything bearing the words “Putin Is a Thief.” That is how they seized, “for examination,” a print run of 100,000 copies of a newspaper intended for every mailbox in the city.
Basically: sure, we’ll return everything—but only after the examination, in a couple of months. I’ll write about the newspaper separately and in detail. I have an idea about that.
The confiscation of the banner headline “Putin Is a Thief” was especially absurd. Every time it was unfurled, this “investigative task force” would show up 15 minutes later. Everything by the book: several officers, an expert with a briefcase. They would draw up a report. Measure the banner with a ruler, prepare a seizure record, and take it away:
The people at the picket would pull out a new banner, and the whole thing would start over again. On one of the days, the police confiscated the banner six times. Well, okay then. As Lyudmila Prokofyevna says in the Soviet film *Office Romance*: “Our paper industry is working splendidly.” P.S. While I’m at it, many thanks once again to everyone who comes from other cities to support me at the trial, and to those wonderful Kirov residents who come on foot.