From the BBC:
“Putin
critic Navalny jailed in Russia despite protests”
A Moscow court
has jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny for three-and-a-half years for violating
the conditions of a suspended sentence. He has been in detention since
returning to Russia last month. He was treated in Germany for a near-fatal
nerve agent attack on him in August. There have been violent scenes in Moscow -
video on social media show police beating and arresting protesters who came out
to support Mr Navalny. Thousands have rallied across Russia. Mr Navalny's
suspended sentence for embezzlement has been converted into a jail term. He has
already served a year under house arrest which will be deducted from the total.
Mr Navalny greeted the news with a resigned shrug, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in
Moscow reports. In court he called President Vladimir Putin a
"poisoner", blaming him for the attack. His supporters called for an
immediate protest, and hundreds gathered in central Moscow and St Petersburg
despite a heavy police presence. More than 850 have been detained in Moscow
alone, according to monitors. His lawyer said they would appeal against the
ruling.
Strong
international reaction to the sentence came quickly, with the Council of Europe
- the continent's leading human rights body - saying the judgement "defied
all credibility". "With this decision, the Russian authorities not
only further exacerbate human rights violations as already established by the
European Court of Human Rights, they also send a signal undermining the protection
of the rights of all Russian citizens," said the council's human rights
commissioner, Dunja Mijatovic, in a statement. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic
Raab described the ruling as "perverse", and German Foreign Minister
Heiko Maas said the verdict was a "bitter blow to firmly established civil
liberties and the rule of law". US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for Mr Navalny's immediate and
unconditional release, and said he would work closely with allies to hold
Russia accountable for "failing to uphold the rights of its
citizens". Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded
by telling Western countries to focus on their own problems. "You should
not interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state," she said on Russian
TV. Mr Navalny has been accused of breaking the terms of a 2014 suspended
sentence for embezzlement that required him to report regularly to Russian
police. His lawyers say the accusation is absurd as the authorities knew he was
recovering in Berlin from the nerve agent attack that nearly killed him in
Russia.
Addressing the
court before the sentencing, Mr Navalny said the case was being used to
frighten the opposition: "This is how it works: they send one to jail to
intimidate millions." On the Novichok chemical attack, he said:
"Using the FSB [Federal Security Service of Russia], Putin attempted to
commit murder. I'm not the only one - many know this already and many others
will. And this is driving the thieving little man in the bunker crazy. "No
matter how much he tries to look like a geopolitician, he took offence at me
because he will go down in history as a poisoner." Mr Navalny's return to
Russia on 17 January triggered mass protests in support of him, many of them
young Russians who have only ever experienced President Putin's rule. The
Kremlin has denied any involvement in the attack on him, and rejects the
conclusion by Western experts that Novichok - a Russian chemical weapon - was
used.
'Putin's
palace' Mr Navalny accuses Mr Putin of running an administration riddled
with corruption, and recently released a YouTube video featuring an opulent
Black Sea palace which, he alleged, was a Russian billionaires' gift to the
president. On Saturday Arkady Rotenberg, a billionaire businessman close
to Mr Putin, said he owned the palace and had bought it two years ago. But
on Sunday some protesters brandished gold-coloured toilet brushes, a symbol of
their anger about the palace. For a second weekend, crowds defied bitter cold
and a massive deployment of riot police, and more than 5,000 were arrested,
according to OVD-Info group. OVD-Info says it is an independent Russian
media project, which gets crowdfunding in Russia and its donors include the
Memorial human rights group and the European Commission. Mr Navalny is
already serving a 30-day sentence in connection with the embezzlement case,
which he denounces as politically motivated. In recent days police have
arrested many of Mr Navalny's top aides, who assist him in his Anti-Corruption
Network (FBK).
^ This is no
surprise. Putin is scared of Navalny and those who support freedom. ^
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