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Putin foe avoids prison but is detained for breaking house arrest Putin foe avoids prison but is detained for breaking house arrest
(about 1 hour later)
MOSCOW— Russian police detained a powerful opponent of President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday during a protest rally staged just hours after a court ordered the activist to remain under house arrest and jailed his brother. MOSCOW— President Vladi­mir Putin’s foremost opponent defiantly challenged the Kremlin Tuesday evening, hours after a court ruling that seemed cunningly designed to keep him in check.
The defiance of Alexei Navalny to attend the anti-Putin demonstration — where crowds chanted against the Russian leader and his policies — pointed to possible reinvigorated opposition at a time when Putin’s image has suffered over issues such as a slumping economy. A judge had sentenced the brother of Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption activist and a scourge of Putin’s since 2011, to prison while ordering Navalny himself to remain under house arrest.
“Russia without Putin,” some cried as several thousand demonstrators filled Moscow’s Manezh Square. Police hustled away Navalny shortly after he arrived, but waited for about two hours before moving to disperse protesters. Denouncing the move as a hostage taking, Navalny defied the order and strode to the edges of a demonstration in central Moscow Tuesday evening. Police quickly whisked him away, but he had shown that he would choose not to buckle under in the face of an implied threat to his family.
He and his brother, Oleg, had been on trial for what they and their allies deemed trumped up fraud charges. Supporters had expected that Alexei Navalny would be sentenced to the maximum of 10 years, but the authorities appeared to be reluctant to make a martyr out of him, and he got off easily. His less political brother was not as fortunate.
Navalny’s supporters decried the legal system for incarcerating the relative of a political foe.
A small but angry crowd that gathered in Manezh Square called for Oleg Navalny’s release, and chanted, “I am Navalny’s brother.”
Timeline: Alexei Navalny, a life in oppositionTimeline: Alexei Navalny, a life in opposition
Earlier Tuesday, Navalny shouted “shame” in a Moscow courtroom after sentences were handed down after trial on fraud charges. Navalny made no secret of his presence at the demonstration, tweeting selfies from the subway train that he took to get there. His intention in showing up was to reinvigorate the opposition movement at a time when Putin’s image has suffered over international crises and a slumping economy.
Both Navalny and his brother Oleg received three-and-a-half-year sentences. Navalny avoided prison with a suspended sentence, which required he continue his nearly year-long house arrest during appeals. But his brother was jailed — a move Navalny decried as a pressure tactic by the Kremlin. But if Navalny was trying to seize a political moment by daring authorities to accommodate or arrest him, the state wasn’t willing to take that bait.
“Why are you putting him in jail, just to punish me even more?” he yelled in court. Police detained Navalny as he approached the square outside the Kremlin where his supporters had gathered in frigid temperatures, but instead of throwing him in jail for breaking his house arrest, they simply returned him home.
Several hours later, defying house arrest, Navalny joined demonstrators shouting “I am the brother of Navalny!” and “Free Russia!” It was by no means the first time Navalny had been detained at a protest. But given the terms of his house arrest, authorities could have taken a harder line — and they still might.
The trial of Navalny and his brother — charged with bilking a company using doctored shipping orders — became a rallying point for Putin’s opponents who claim the case was politically motived punishment. But for now the authorities are keeping to a strategy of tying Navalny up with legal proceedings, without cracking down so hard as to provoke street protests of the size he led in 2011 and 2012.
His appearance at the demonstration, as temperatures dipped close to zero, was viewed as both a challenge of the court ruling and the wider reach of Putin’s authority. Tuesday began with a jarring surprise, when Navalny was given a three-and-a-half year suspended sentence with no jail time, while his brother Oleg was imprisoned immediately following the verdict.
“Shame on you!” Navalny cried to the judge. “Why are you putting him in jail, just to punish me even more?”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke called the Moscow court decisions a “disturbing development designed to punish and deter political activism.”In Washington, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke called the Moscow court decisions a “disturbing development designed to punish and deter political activism.”
It was by no means the first time Navalny had been detained at a protest. In the past, Navalny was generally released soon after, or at most several days later. But given the terms of his house arrest, authorities could take a harder line. At the nighttime rally, Maria Krasovskaya, 24, said, “Putin is pure evil – he can choose very evil ways of treating people, and he created this hostage situation.”
In a final argument before the court earlier this month, Navalny pledged that charges against “hostages” such as his brother “will not stop me.” But he now faces a dilemma: How hard to push against the Kremlin without putting his brother at further possible risk. She complained that Russian authorities have no respect for the rule of law. “Of course he was hoping that people wouldn’t care about some Oleg Navalny that they’ve never known, but I’m glad some people do.”
Navalny’s anti-corruption movement has long been a thorn in Putin’s side. Navalny led mass anti-Putin protests in 2011 and 2012 and made a strong showing against the Kremlin’s hand-picked candidate in the 2013 Moscow mayoral race. Krasovskaya was one of about 2,000 people who showed up on the coldest night yet of Moscow’s winter.
Navalny’s verdict was expected in mid-January, but it was abruptly rescheduled to before New Year’s Eve — the biggest holiday of the year in Russia, and the start of an extended national holiday period during which many people leave Moscow. According to one watchdog group, OVD-Info, over 250 people were detained for participating in the unsanctioned demonstration.
In 2013, when a court found Navalny guilty of embezzlement in a different case involving a timber company, authorities released him from prison after just one day following large protests in Moscow. He placed second in the Moscow mayor’s race just a few months later. In general, the numbers at the demonstration fell far short of the turnout organizers had initially expected, before the court pulled a last-minute scheduling switch, changing the date of the verdict from January 15 to Tuesday with less than 24 hours’ notice.
In the current case, Navalny and his brother were accused of defrauding a cosmetics company out of $800,000 through fake shipping bills. Prosecutors have sought a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, and Navalny has been under house arrest since February Tens of thousands had pledged to come to the Jan. 15 rally, despite the Russian government’s efforts to remove Facebook event pages advertising the unsanctioned demonstration.
In the past year, anti-government protesters have confronted increasing pressures in Russia, which deepened its involvement in Ukraine’s conflict and faced growing tensions with the West. But to some Kremlin critics, the falling price of oil and the plunge of the Russian ruble raised the possibility that Putin’s grip on power might be weakening. The Tuesday verdict came just before New Year’s, which is the biggest holiday of the year in Russia, and the start of an extended national vacation period during which many people leave Moscow. That timing – and the weather – kept some supporters at home.
Yet Tuesday’s verdict demonstrated the unpredictable nature of how justice can be meted against political opposition figures in Russia. It is not the first time that the government has taken note of Navalny’s ability to draw a crowd, and reacted accordingly.
Around this time last year, Putin pardoned and released former oil tycoon and outspoken Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky after a decade-long imprisonment. After his release, Khodorkovsky said he considered Putin “a political opponent, not an enemy” because “he didn’t touch my family.” In 2013, when a court found Navalny guilty of embezzlement in a different case involving a timber company, authorities released him from prison after just one day following large protests in Moscow. He placed second in the Moscow mayor's race, drawing a larger-than-expected 27 percent of the vote, just a few months later.
In the current case, Navalny and his brother were accused of defrauding a local affiliate of the Yves Rocher cosmetics company out of $800,000 through inflated shipping bills. Navalny has been under house arrest since February
Many of Navalny’s supporters said they had been deeply disturbed by the decision to punish Navalny's brother Oleg, and the precedent it might set for others who might be found guilty by association in the future.
“We didn’t just come for him, we came for ourselves,” said Kasim Alpaev, 59. “To come for yourself or not, that’s an important question. Are you going to just sit in your house and dream? I can’t.”
Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.