Navalny’s speech in court. On the arrest of his lawyers and the fight against Putin.
Text version
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My lawyer is not here, nor are any of the others.
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There are no lawyers here; no one is allowed to come see me.
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On Friday evening, I received
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information that searches had been carried out yesterday.
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I received information that three
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lawyers
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had been arrested.
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And these actions are, without question, outrageous.
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They are unlawful and, well, demonstratively so.
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Blatantly unlawful. But as things stand right now, I
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honestly do not really understand what
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my position before the court should be on all
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the other issues, because here I am
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informing the court, for example, that today
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the Investigative Committee sent me a notice
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saying that, urgently, with my participation,
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some investigative actions would be carried out.
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With the wonderful and mocking
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addition that if you do not have a lawyer,
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please take whatever steps are necessary
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to find one. But what steps
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am I supposed to take? I do not understand what is happening
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with my lawyers. No one is allowed in here to see me.
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I know nothing. I am completely
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cut off from information, and even the radio—
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let me remind you—formally, I do not even have
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access to Radio Mayak (a Russian state radio station), so I cannot hear what
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is happening in our
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country. Therefore, I consider what is happening
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to be outright lawlessness. I believe that
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my lawyers are being persecuted for their
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professional work. They are
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proof of that: they were providing me with
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professional legal assistance. In the Kovrov court alone,
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we went through dozens of cases.
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So why are they being arrested and repressed? There is a lawyer there
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who has three children, and there are two
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lawyers who have not worked with me
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for more than two years, more than a year.
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So all of this, of course, Your Honor,
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court,
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dear attendees, I
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see as, well, a kind of convulsion
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of this disgusting regime, a reaction that
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shows just how right my colleagues and I are acting, and
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that my colleagues and I, in the wonderful and in no way
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extremist organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation,
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are of course going to continue this work.
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It is not extremist.
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It fully complies with the Constitution.
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We have the right to engage in political
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activity. I have the right, in this
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court, to say plainly and directly: yes, I
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am against Vladimir Putin. Yes, I am against his
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rule. I
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will—Let's stick to the matter at hand.
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—that is not the essence of our case. Well, isn't it?
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—our case? When I—Wait, let me
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ask you the following question: are you prepared
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to consider the case without the absent
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lawyer, Aleksandr Fedulov?
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Vladimirovich—this case, this specific
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case? Right now I
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will say this: today, lawyer Aleksandr Fedulov
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Vladimirovich—I do not know where he is,
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and I would be very glad to hear that
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he is not under arrest.
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I hope that is the case, but nevertheless
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he did not come. I have been deprived of lawyer Fedulov
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because I hold this kind of political
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position. I say directly and openly
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that I oppose this regime and
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will continue to oppose it, and this is absolutely
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a sign of this system's death throes, because
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after all, I am sitting here in this
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EPKT (a cell-type punishment unit in the Russian prison system), and absolutely all documents that
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go from me to my lawyers are being censored
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for more than a year already, but even so, even in
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this, the authorities find some terrible
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danger—such a great danger that
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they feel the need to demonstratively arrest
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lawyers. And, well, this is a kangaroo system; they
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are afraid. They are not nearly as strong as
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they seem, and so once again I want to
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call on everyone to do what I have always urged everyone to do:
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campaign and vote against
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Putin and against United Russia.