Navalny in Court Facing Jail Term as Putin Battles Dissent

Irina Reznik and Henry Meyer
Updated

(Bloomberg) -- A Moscow court is deciding whether to jail Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny for as long as 3 1/2 years, as President Vladimir Putin seeks to crush resurgent protests against his rule.

The district court is to rule Tuesday on demands by penal authorities and prosecutors that Navalny, 44, serve the term in prison instead of the suspended sentence he received for a 2014 fraud conviction, for alleged violations of his probation. Security outside the court was heavy, with riot police detaining about 100 protesters around the court as Navalny’s supporters gathered outside, according to monitoring group OVD-Info.

A prison van brought the Kremlin critic to the court from the Moscow jail where he has been held. Navalny stood in the glass defendant’s cage in the courtroom, clad in a blue sweater and jeans. He joked with his wife, Yulia, sitting in the front row, about seeing TV reports of her detentions at protests since his arrest. “I’m proud of you,” he said.

The activist was detained in mid-January as he returned from Germany, where he recovered from a near-fatal nerve-agent attack that he and Western governments blamed on Putin’s security services. The Kremlin denies responsibility. A prison term could sideline Navalny but risks escalating the confrontation between the authorities and opposition protesters.

Western Appeals

Police detained thousands at rallies in support of Navalny in dozens of cities nationwide over the last two weekends, some of the largest anti-Kremlin protests in years.

The U.S. and the European Union have called on Russia to release Navalny and western diplomats attended Tuesday’s hearing. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his detention “profoundly disturbing” in an interview Sunday with MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” The EU’s top foreign policy official, Josep Borrell, has said he’ll raise the case when he visits Moscow for talks this week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Western pressure on the Kremlin has so far been limited mainly to rhetoric, and the ruble has slipped only modestly against the dollar in recent weeks. “This case shouldn’t lead to a rise in risks of large-scale, harsh sanctions on the Russian market,” said Sofya Donets, chief economist at Renaissance Capital. In neighboring Belarus, for example, Western governments responded to a violent crackdown on protesters with sanctions targeted on individuals, not the country as a whole, she added.

Riot police were accused of using electric-shock devices against some people at the latest protests on Sunday amid allegations of a particularly harsh response. There were 5,754 detentions, adding to nearly 3,600 at Jan. 23 protests, according to OVD-Info.

Navalny received the suspended sentence in a fraud trial involving the Russian branch of French cosmetics company Yves Rocher that also led to a 3 1/2 year jail term for his younger brother, Oleg. Both men denied wrongdoing, and the European Court of Human Rights has called the case politically motivated.

Defense attorneys cited that ruling and argued that Navalny was recuperating in Germany last year and couldn’t check in with probation authorities. The prison service contended that he had breached the terms of the sentence before going to Germany and asked for a 3 1/2 year prison term.

“You said repeatedly that you didn’t know where I was but the president of the country on his direct line said that thanks to him, I was getting treatment. Didn’t you hear that, too?” Navalny asked the prison service representative.

Putin isn’t following the hearing and is preparing for a meeting with teachers scheduled for Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

In a separate case, Navalny also faces possible new fraud charges that could carry an additional 10-year punishment.

Putin, Poison and the Importance of Alexey Navalny: QuickTake

Putin, 68, has been in power since 2000, the longest rule since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. In July, he pushed through constitutional changes that would allow him to stay as president until 2036. Last year his support fell to a record low amid the Covid-19 downturn, and the continuing slide in incomes is weighing on the Russian leader’s popularity, pollsters say.

Gross domestic product contracted 3.1% last year, the biggest slump since 2009, the Federal Statistics Service reported Monday. Still, Russia suffered a smaller decline than most major economies after the government opted not to reimpose a lockdown in the second half of the year.

Navalny raised the focus on officials’ opulent lifestyles in a video released after his arrest that got more than 100 million views and alleged that Putin owns a giant $1.3 billion Black Sea palace. Putin dismissed the claim and a billionaire ally, Arkady Rotenberg, said last week that he is the beneficial owner of the residence.

While Putin has survived several past outbursts of anti-Kremlin protests, the opposition is digging in for a long-term struggle ahead of 2024, when he must decide whether to seek a fifth presidential term. Backers of Navalny say he’ll become a potent symbol of resistance behind bars.

(Updates with prison service seeking 3 1/2-year sentence from 2nd paragraph)

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Originally published

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