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| Russian Court Convicts Opposition Leader | Russian Court Convicts Opposition Leader |
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| KIROV, Russia — Aleksei A. Navalny, a lawyer who became Russia’s most resonant opposition voice by crusading against rampant public corruption and a personal irritant to President Vladimir V. Putin by branding his United Russia political machine as the “party of swindlers and thieves,” was found guilty on Thursday of stealing money from a state-controlled timber company. | KIROV, Russia — Aleksei A. Navalny, a lawyer who became Russia’s most resonant opposition voice by crusading against rampant public corruption and a personal irritant to President Vladimir V. Putin by branding his United Russia political machine as the “party of swindlers and thieves,” was found guilty on Thursday of stealing money from a state-controlled timber company. |
| He was sentenced to five years in prison — a punishment that immediately transformed Mr. Navalny, 37, who recently declared his candidacy for mayor of Moscow, from an opposition activist to a political dissident and prisoner. Joining the storied ranks of Russian dissidents, Mr. Navalny was the first to use the Internet and social media as his main weapon against the state. | |
| Mr. Navalny’s co-defendant, Pyotr Ofitserov, a businessman and acquaintance who worked with him on the timber project, was sentenced to four years in prison. The two men, who had been accused of embezzling nearly $500,000, were also each fined more than $15,000. | |
| Much of the judge’s findings was based on the testimony of a third man accused in the scheme, Vyacheslav Opalev, who pleaded guilty and worked with the prosecution. In his decision, Judge Sergei Blinov called his testimony trustworthy and reliable. But during the trial, Mr. Opalev at times gave contradictory evidence, and defense lawyers were not allowed to cross-examine him. In addition, Judge Blinov barred the defense from calling 13 witnesses. | |
| The verdict immediately reverberated throughout the highest levels of Russian government and society and even sparked some calls for boycotts of the Moscow mayoral election and future national ballots. Aleksei L. Kudrin, a close associate of Mr. Putin and former finance minister, described it on Twitter as “looking less like a punishment than an attempt to isolate him from social life and the electoral process.” | |
| The crime novelist, Boris Akunin, who is also a political opposition leader, said the verdict showed there was little hope to change Russia by democratic means. “Lifetime deprivation of elections — this is what the verdict means not only for Navalny but for all who thought it was possible to change this system through elections,” Mr. Akunin wrote. “As long as the Putin regime is alive, there will not be elections. The answer to the question ‘to be, or not to be’ that is to boycott or not boycott, has been answered. For other elections as well.” | |
| In the online world where Mr. Navalny was a singular voice with a knack for zinging catchphrases, supporters noted that the verdict came on Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday and that the Kremlin had published an official congratulatory message from the Mr. Putin to the former South African leader even as Russia was about to make Mr. Navalny its own political prisoner. | |
| Mr. Navalny spent much of the court session defiantly posting commentary on Twitter, including a pointed assertion that all of the evidence against him had been fabricated. He ignored an order from the judge to shut off cellphones. As Judge Blinov pronounced the sentenced, after more than three hours of reciting the facts of the case and reading his decision, Mr. Navalny was still working his phone. | |
| Mr. Navalny posted on Twitter: “Ok. Don’t miss me. And most importantly — do not be lazy.” Referring to the Russian government, he added, “The toad will not remove itself from the oil pipeline.” | |
| As the five-year sentence was delivered, and the judge said that it could not be suspended but required actual jail time, some of Mr. Navalny’s supporters burst into tears. He was led away in handcuffs. | |
| Even before the sentence was announced, riot police in Moscow were cordoning off Manezh Square near the Kremlin, where backers of Mr. Navalny had planned to hold an unsanctioned rally. More than 7,000 people had responded to an announcement of the event on Facebook to say that they would attend. | |
| Before being led out of the courtroom by guards, he turned and hugged his wife, Yulia, and shook hands with some supporters. | |
| The guilty verdict was widely expected and prosecutors had demanded a six-year prison term. | |
| Unless it is reversed on appeal, which seemed unlikely, the verdict stood to disqualify Mr. Navalny from the Moscow mayoral election, which will be held in September. The incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin, is widely favored to win re-election. | |
| In the hours ahead of the verdict, Mr. Navalny was defiant. In a blog post on Wednesday, he railed against the government. “The current power – is not a healthy big fish, but a puffer fish or a Latin American toad, which puffs itself up when it senses danger, using TV to spread lies from prostitute TV hosts,” he wrote. | |
| He also exhorted his supporters to continue his work even in his absence. “You understand what is to be done, understand how it must be done, and understand for what it must be done,” he wrote."The main thing is be brave, to cast off laziness and do it. You actually don’t need any sort of special leadership.” | He also exhorted his supporters to continue his work even in his absence. “You understand what is to be done, understand how it must be done, and understand for what it must be done,” he wrote."The main thing is be brave, to cast off laziness and do it. You actually don’t need any sort of special leadership.” |
| “There is no one else but you,” he wrote in closing. “If you are reading this, you are the resistance.” | “There is no one else but you,” he wrote in closing. “If you are reading this, you are the resistance.” |
| The charges that Mr. Navalny faced, dating from his brief role as an adviser to the regional governor here, were thin at best. A previous investigation had resulted in them being thrown out as baseless. | The charges that Mr. Navalny faced, dating from his brief role as an adviser to the regional governor here, were thin at best. A previous investigation had resulted in them being thrown out as baseless. |
| The Kremlin, however, made little effort to mask the political motivation of prosecution. A spokesman for the federal Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, declared publicly that Mr. Navalny had made a target of himself through his political activities criticizing public officials. | The Kremlin, however, made little effort to mask the political motivation of prosecution. A spokesman for the federal Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, declared publicly that Mr. Navalny had made a target of himself through his political activities criticizing public officials. |
| “If a person tries with all his strength to attract attention, or if I can put it, teases authorities — ‘look at me, I’m so good compared to everyone else’ — well, then interest in his past grows and the process of exposing him naturally speeds up,” Mr. Markin said. | “If a person tries with all his strength to attract attention, or if I can put it, teases authorities — ‘look at me, I’m so good compared to everyone else’ — well, then interest in his past grows and the process of exposing him naturally speeds up,” Mr. Markin said. |
| Mr. Navalny arrived at the Leninsky Court here in downtown Kirov Thursday looking tense and carrying a black duffel bag, presumably containing personal items given the possibility that he could be sent to jail immediately. His wife, Yulia, arrived with him, carrying two bottles of water. Mr. Navalny clutched his own bottle of water with one hand at the defense table. His other hand, predictably, held his smartphone, and even as the judge continued reading, Mr. Navalny was posting on Twitter. | Mr. Navalny arrived at the Leninsky Court here in downtown Kirov Thursday looking tense and carrying a black duffel bag, presumably containing personal items given the possibility that he could be sent to jail immediately. His wife, Yulia, arrived with him, carrying two bottles of water. Mr. Navalny clutched his own bottle of water with one hand at the defense table. His other hand, predictably, held his smartphone, and even as the judge continued reading, Mr. Navalny was posting on Twitter. |
| In a message from the court, he mocked the stack of paper Judge Blinov was reading from “even with text on both sides,” Mr. Navalny wrote. His wife stood in the second row, wearing an elegant red skirt and white blazer, and smiled tightly as she also tapped on her phone. At one point, Mr. Navalny looked at one of the cameras providing a live feed from the courtroom and flashed his pinkie and index fingers in a sort of victory sign. | In a message from the court, he mocked the stack of paper Judge Blinov was reading from “even with text on both sides,” Mr. Navalny wrote. His wife stood in the second row, wearing an elegant red skirt and white blazer, and smiled tightly as she also tapped on her phone. At one point, Mr. Navalny looked at one of the cameras providing a live feed from the courtroom and flashed his pinkie and index fingers in a sort of victory sign. |
| Several leaders of the political opposition traveled from Moscow to be in the courthouse, including Ilya V. Ponomarev and Dmitry G. Gudkov, who are members of the Russian Parliament, and Ilya Yashin, who along with Mr. Navalny helped organize a series big street protests in Moscow following disputed parliamentary elections in December 2011. | Several leaders of the political opposition traveled from Moscow to be in the courthouse, including Ilya V. Ponomarev and Dmitry G. Gudkov, who are members of the Russian Parliament, and Ilya Yashin, who along with Mr. Navalny helped organize a series big street protests in Moscow following disputed parliamentary elections in December 2011. |
| Judge Blinov interrupted the reading of his decision to note that half of the courtroom was sending messages and he ordered that all phones be turned off. No one obeyed, certainly not Mr. Navalny who posted another message on Twitter joking that he was trying to convince everyone standing in his row to do the wave — as in a stadium crowd — “while trying not to talk.” | Judge Blinov interrupted the reading of his decision to note that half of the courtroom was sending messages and he ordered that all phones be turned off. No one obeyed, certainly not Mr. Navalny who posted another message on Twitter joking that he was trying to convince everyone standing in his row to do the wave — as in a stadium crowd — “while trying not to talk.” |
| As the verdict was delivered in Kirov, 600 miles away, Grigory Saksonov, 57, an electrician looking for work, was standing on Manezh Square in Moscow holding a sign that said : “Judge Blinov, you’re a donkey.” He was stunned to learn that Mr. Navalny received five years; saying he had expected a suspended sentence. “If it’s a real sentence, then it is two-faced meanness. So, Navalny will sit in jail, and the government will feast its eyes.” He added, “It was always a political process, even from the beginning.” | |
Alexandra Kozlovsky and Ellen Barry contributed reporting from Moscow. |