Continues the Russian judicial fury against the opponent Alexei Navalny. In the trial behind closed doors inside the prison where he is still imprisoned, about 200 kilometers from Moscathe dissident blogger was found guilty of “extremism” of political origin and for this reason condemned to others 19 years’ imprisonmentin line with requests from the prosecution who had proposed 20 years in prison.
The Russian dissident via social media has invited the Russians to continue to “resist” in the Kremlin despite the ruling that he said he considered a “life sentence“. “They want to scare you, not me, and deprive you of the will to resist,” he wrote on Twitter. “They are forcing you to hand over your Russia without a fight to a gang of traitors, thieves and scoundrels who have seized power. Putin must not achieve his goal. Don’t lose the will to resist“, Navalny has concluded.
19 years in a maximum security penal colony. The number of years does not matter. I perfectly understand that, like many political prisoners, I am sitting on a life sentence. Where life is measured by the term of my life or the term of life of this regime.
The sentencing figure…
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) August 4, 2023
A verdict that immediately provoked the reaction of theEuropean Unionwith the president of the EU Council Charles Michel who wrote in a tweet: “The last verdict of yet another farce process against Alexei Navalny is unacceptable. This arbitrary condemnation is the answer to his courage to speak out critically against the Kremlin regime. I reiterate the EU’s call for the immediate release and unconditional of Navalny”. Even the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Joseph Borrell, reiterated that “the European Union strongly condemns today’s sentence against the Russian opposition politician, Alexei Navalny. The EU deeply regrets that the hearings took place in a closed environment, inaccessible to his family and observers, in a strict penal colony outside Moscow. This is a clear indication that the Russian legal system continues to be used against Navalny and shows how fearful the Russian authorities are of him.” The United States speak of “unfair conclusion to an unfair trial” with the State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
On the eve of the verdict, Vladimir Putin’s main opponent said he expected one “Stalinist” ruling and a heavy sentence. Russian authorities in 2021 branded both Navalny’s network of offices in Russia and the Anti-Corruption Foundation of the opponent whose investigations in past years have repeatedly embarrassed the Kremlin.
And even in his latest speech before the court, Navalny returned to accusing the Russian establishment by relying on the senselessness of the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Vladimir Putin: the war in Ukrainehe said, is “the most stupid and senseless of the 21st century – he said – Not wanting to rest on the leg of conscience, my Russia made some great leaps, pushing everyone around, but then slipped and was collapsed with a crash, destroying everything around it. And now she’s wallowing in one puddle of mud or bloodyou don’t understand, with broken bones and the poor and robbed population, surrounded by tens of thousands of dead from the most stupid and senseless war of the 21st century. Of course, sooner or later he will get back up. And it’s up to us to determine what it will rest on in the future.”