Yulia Navalnaya arrives at Moscow court, where her husband Aleksei could be sentenced to several years in prison today.
Yulia Navalnaya arriving at court
Riot police keeping the press at bay before Navalny’s court hearing
I’m in the courtroom: Navalny is here, in the glass box for defendants, in slacks and a dark hoodie, standing and scanning the gathered journalists. “I’m proud of you,” he says to his wife, over the microphone.
The court has let in several dozen journalists, including Russian state media, foreign media, and independent online outlets. But photo/video barred. Diplomats are also observing. The judge has entered and the hearing has started.
Current address? the judge asks. “Pre-trial Detention Facility No. 1,” Navalny deadpans.
Navalny’s attorneys are arguing that their client returned to Moscow as soon as he finished his treatment and would have reported to parole authorities immediately had he not been arrested. Prosecutors want prison time for Navalny for violating parole.
The scene: grand wood-panelled courtroom, judge in robes under a double-headed eagle with scales of justice on either side; depictions of Montesquieu and other luminaries on teal walls. Seven rows of journalists, Navalny standing and smiling in his glass box.
The court has recessed for 10 minutes. Everyone asked to stay in their seats as Navalny paces in his glass box, looks up to examine Montesquieu and other wall decorations.
Hearing has started again, with prosecution arguing that Mr. Navalny didn’t report to parole authorities on the right days: “Jan. 9 was a Thursday, which has nothing at all to do with a Monday.”
A prosecutor in a light-blue mask and navy uniform is reading, barely audibly, from a stack of paper, describing each of Navalny's alleged parole violations.
The prosecutor says the “information-telecommunications network known as the ‘internet’” showed that Navalny was moving freely across Germany while not reporting for his parole last year.
Correction: that's a prison service official, Aleksandr Yermolin, in the navy-blue uniform and mask.
The judge asked the prosecution a series of questions. Why didn't prison service seek action against Navalny earlier? Prison official Yermolin says: There was hope that Navalny “would get on the road to reform.”
Navalny’s lawyer asks why the prison service only tried to contact him — by text message — on Dec. 28, a day before his client was declared wanted. Prison service official struggles to respond.
Navalny addresses prison official: “Say, comrade captain, do you respect the President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin?” Judge sustains prosecutor’s objection to the question.
Navalny, poking at the glass, says even Putin publicly said he was being treated in Germany. “What more could I have done” to satisfy prison service? he asks.
“On what grounds do you say you didn’t know about my location?” Navalny says to prison official through mic in his box, raising voice. “Why do you lie to, mislead the court?”
“I wasn’t able to reach the prison service, or you personally, because you all turned your phones off,” Mikhailova, one of Navalny’s lawyers, says, referring to his Jan. 17 arrest.
Judge Repnikova has been reading out documents in the case. Meanwhile, Kremlin spox Peskov: “We hope that there will not be something as silly as tying the future of Russian-European relations to the case of this pre-trial detention center inhabitant.” tass.ru/politika/10602…
Judge declares a two-hour break. “Is it possible to send someone to McDonald’s?” Navalny says.
Line of cars with diplomatic plates at the courthouse. Foreign Ministry spox Zakharova says the presence of diplomats observing today’s hearing amounts to “interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state.”
Hearing starts back up; Navalny delivers an emotional speech, jabbing his finger against the glass: “With a maniac’s tenacity, our government wants to lock me up … The reason for all this is the hate and fear of one man who lives in a bunker.”
Navalny to judge: “It was Putin who, using the Federal Security Service, attempted to kill me … People now know this, and many more will know it, and this drives the corrupt little man in his bunker crazy.”
Navalny in court: “No matter how much [Putin] portrays himself a great geopolitician…his main resentment against me now is that he will go down in history as a poisoner. There was Alexander the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise. Now we’ll have Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants.”
At this point, prosecutor tries to interrupt Navalny’s speech, but he continues. “The main thing about this trial is not even how it will end, will I go to jail…The main reason this is happening is to scare a huge number of people. One person is jailed to scare millions.”
Navalny: “Millions and hundreds of thousands cannot be locked up. I really hope that more and more people will recognize this. And when they recognize this — and that moment will come — all this will fall apart, because you cannot lock up the whole country.”
The Navalny attacks the prosecutor and the judge, for donning a uniform and robe and being part of the system. “This isn’t a political rally,” the judge interrupts. “Let’s not do politics here.”
Navalny finishes by thanking those who “fight and are not afraid.” “They have the same rights as you do. We are also citizens, and we demand a normal justice system, to be dealt with normally, to be able to participate in elections.”
Navalny, ending: “There are many good things in Russia, and the best thing is those people who are not afraid, who don’t look down at the table and who will never give our country away to a small bunch of sold-out officials.”
Now being cross-examined, Navalny directs his vitriol at the prosecutor, Yekaterina Frolova: “You are an honorable daughter of the regime; you lie in every word.”
On the hearing so far: nytimes.com/2021/02/02/wor…
The prosecutor has offered her argument, saying Navalny “did not get on the path of reform,” showed a lack of respect for the law, and was guilt of “systematic violations of obligations placed on him by the court.”
Prosecutor calls for Navalny to be imprisoned for 3.5 years minus length of his earlier house arrest, which was about a year. Judge has retired to her chambers for the decision. We wait in the courtroom.
The decision will come no earlier than two hours from now, were told.
We're back in the courtroom for the Navalny decision. TV network cameras have been brought in.
Navalny has entered the courtroom, wearing a black puffy jacket, led by handcuffs by a policeman.
Using two hands, he flashes a heart shape toward his wife Yulia in the first row.
Judge rules Navalny did violate his parole, converting his suspended prison term to a real prison term
Judge sentences Navalny to prison for about 2.5 years (subtracting about 10 months of house arrest from original 3.5 year prison term)
Navalny's allies have called for protests tonight in front of the Kremlin. Moscow subway says stations around the Kremlin are closed "as demanded by the police."
The latest from Moscow City Court: a pivotal day for Putin's Russia.

The Kremlin had tried to contain Navalny with jail terms of a few weeks at a time. His voice will now be removed from politics — but the opposition could coalesce around him further. nytimes.com/2021/02/02/wor…
Now with photos from the Moscow streets today by @SergeyPonomarev nytimes.com/2021/02/02/wor…
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More from @antontroian

31 Jan
Russia's protests today begin on the Pacific ice, where riot police here give chase to protesters on the frozen Amur Bay at Vladivostok
An extraordinary show of police force in Moscow and across Russia as the Kremlin tries to defuse a second weekend of Navalny protests. Follow our live coverage here: nytimes.com/2021/01/31/wor…
Navalny's team on Telegram redirecting protesters on the fly vs. riot police trucks screeching through the streets. A dramatic cat-and-mouse game is developing in paralyzed central Moscow. Reporting from @INechepurenko, @AndrewKramerNYT & A. Higgins:
nytimes.com/2021/01/31/wor…
Read 7 tweets
18 Jan
Navalny, in a makeshift courtroom just now at a police station near the airport, with one of his Putin epithets: “It seems that the grandpa in the bunker is so afraid of everything that they demonstratively ripped apart the code of criminal procedure and threw it in the trash.”
Minutes earlier, Navalny's lawyer received this letter notifying him that his client's hearing was about to take place at the police station — not in a courtroom. Only pro-Kremlin media have been allowed inside.
Pictures from the "courtroom," via pro-Kremlin outlet Life News.
Read 8 tweets
17 Jan
An extraordinary day in Moscow: Even his allies say there is a strong chance Navalny will be arrested after he lands at Vnukovo Airport tonight. "Leaving Navalny free would mean showing weakness in the eyes of his inner circle." nytimes.com/2021/01/17/wor…
Yesterday, Navalny thanked his German hosts. “Do you hear ‘the kindest, helpful, friendly people’ and not immediately think of Germans?” he wrote. “Then you are wrong. That’s exactly who they are.” nytimes.com/2021/01/17/wor…
Navalny boards the plane in Berlin, via livestream from @tvrain
Read 24 tweets
30 Aug 20
In Minsk today, a column that looked to be more than 100,000 marched up to Lukashenko’s Independence Palace and demanded he resign. Here’s what we saw:
The day began with columns of people — there’s safety in numbers in Minsk these days — converging on the city center, cars honking as they went by
Heeding the directions of Telegram channels organizing the protests, people headed toward Independence Avenue because the original meeting point, Independence Square, was blocked by the police
Read 15 tweets
25 Jul 20
Many thousands are in the streets of Khabarovsk, 4,000 miles east of Moscow, for the 3rd Saturday straight in the biggest protests Russia’s regions have seen in many years. It took 14 minutes for the march to pass by me here:
This was sparked by the arrest of a popular governor, Sergei Furgal. Khabarovites widely saw it as Putin’s move to get rid of an insufficiently loyal official.
Here people chant “Freeedom!” and “Putin’s resignation is the best amendment!” — a reference to the recent constitutional vote that gives Putin the chance to rule til 2036.
Read 15 tweets
3 May 19
Trump and Putin spoke for an hour and a half today, per Kremlin spokesman Peskov. ria.ru/20190503/15532…
Kremlin: “A mutual commitment was confirmed to activating dialogue in various spheres, including on questions of strategic stability…The heads of state expressed satisfaction with the conversation, which was of a businesslike and constructive character.” kremlin.ru/events/preside…
Per Kremlin, Putin told Trump:
— Ukrainian president-elect "must take real steps toward realizing the Minsk agreements"
— NK denuclearization steps "must be accompanied by…reducing sanctions"
— "outside interference" in Venezuela "undermines chances of political resolution"
Read 6 tweets

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