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Navalny is back on trial today on charges of defaming a 94-year-old World War II veteran. He's pacing back and forth in the court "aquarium" while his lawyers move to have the judge removed, accusing her of bias against him.
The case is a pretty transparent attempt to smear Navalny by accusing him of hating World War II veterans – which state TV duly did after last week's session. Navalny accused the court of exploiting the old man to score a propaganda point.
Navalny is now complaining that the court didn't let the media film last week's session, but state TV got access to footage of it for their attacks on him. "Stop shaming yourself and take some extra lessons to freshen up your knowledge of the criminal code," he tells the judge.
After an hour-long break, the judge refuses to recuse herself. The prosecutor reads a letter from Ignat Artemenko, the 94-year-old veteran, who says he won't participate further after feeling unwell during last week's hearing and blames Navalny for his ill health.
Navalny, visibly agitated, demands to know how the prosecutor got hold of Artemenko's statement. Artemenko read out his statement from a piece of paper last week and didn't appear to understand what was going on. Navalny accused his relatives of "trading off the old man"
"Are we meant to believe he got behind a computer and wrote this statement saying he wants the prosecution to support his interests? Obviously it's a forgery – it's not even in the language that a 95-year-old man uses," says Navalny. "You are using this poor old man as a puppet."
Artemenko's grandson Igor Kolesnikov is testifying. Navalny tries to ask him some questions. Everyone is yelling at each other. Navalny is now on his fifth reprimand. "I'm trying to understand how you wound up on the slippery slope of trafficking your own grandfather!" he says.
Navalny is now asking Kolesnikov why his grandfather was listed as a founder of his mobile phone repair firm at the tender age of 86. "What, was the old man fixing your phones?" he says. "Kolesnikov has a longstanding habit of forging documents!"
"Everyone here's grandfather fought in the war! But you're the only one who's pimping his out!" says Navalny, getting yet another reprimand from the judge. He's not going to make it to the end of the hearing at this rate.
"The only person in this whole room on your grandfather's side is me, because I'm trying to work out who forged documents in his name!" says Navalny.
Navalny brings up Artemenko's firm's earnings for last year, which were apparently 33,000 rubles ($450). "Anyone who uses an old man as a puppet is a traitor and a stooge, but that's not the point. There are state employees here who make more in a month than you do in a year!"
Several largely unintelligible minutes where everyone screams at each other. The judge orders a break.
“Am I free to go?” asks Kolesnikov. “No, you’re not free!” says Navalny.
“Am I free to go?” asks Kolesnikov. “No, you’re not free!” says Navalny.
Foreign intelligence boss Sergei Naryshkin makes the obvious talking point:
"These offensive insults against our respected veterans from the victory generation are immoral and blasphemous. Those who make them deliberately put themselves on a par with Nazi collaborators."
"These offensive insults against our respected veterans from the victory generation are immoral and blasphemous. Those who make them deliberately put themselves on a par with Nazi collaborators."
Back in court. Lots of yelling. Kolesnikov is allowed to go, without really having testified about anything. A new witness: pensioner Andrei Lukin, a mere 61.
Lukin says he filed the complaint to investigators over Navalny's alleged defamation of the WWII veteran. It was unclear for a while who the actual complainant was. Lukin says he thinks "it's unacceptable to call a veteran a traitor"
Navalny is now trying to question the witness. The judge is striking nearly everything he says from the record. "You called a war veteran a traitor, that's not allowed," Lukin said.
Navalny asks: "Did you see me call Artemenko a traitor personally?" No, says Lukin. "Do you deny my right to call everyone who supports Putin's constitutional changes stooges? If I call United Russia the party of crooks and thieves, does it offend them all personally?"
The judge has now barred Navalny from asking any more questions. Navalny's lawyers now complain that all of the prosecution's questions have been allowed while his have mostly been struck. "Our questions are aimed at proving there is no crime, and you won't allow them."
"Bring me my diary, nobody's given me this many reprimands since school," Navalny says.
A new witness from the ambulance service. He says they visited Artemenko last June when he complained of heart problems and high blood pressure. This was apparently because of emotional stress, but he took his meds and was soon fine.
The prosecutor is now reading what is supposedly an excerpt from Artemenko's witness statement. "Impatiently waiting for the partisans, I looked around with trepidation... The Germans became crueler every day – they clearly didn't expect so much resistance from the population"
Artemenko was only in a state to read a few pre-written lines last week, but apparently last summer he was in such good fettle he dictated these lengthy reminiscences about the Nazi invasion in 1942. This is utterly bizarre.
"One summer evening in 1942, two strangers went up to me and asked about guns. That was dangerous... I understood that they were partisans, and realized I was in danger, but knew it'd be my part in our victory. So I helped the defenders of the Motherland without a second thought"
We are now in the spring of 1943. The Nazis have been driven back from Moscow, but the partisan movement in the western USSR is still going strong. I'm not sure what this has to do with Navalny, or with this defamation trial.
The prosecutor is still reading out Artemenko's memoirs, or whatever this is. It's now 1945 and he has officially joined the Red Army. A reminder that Navalny's questions were mostly struck for being irrelevant, but this version of Life and Fate was allowed
Navalny reveals that most of Artemenko's reminiscences were written in 1974. "This man could barely read 4 pre-written lines last week! [...] The fascists' investigation reminds me of this court." He asks the judge permission to call her "Obersturmbannführer." She orders a break.
Meanwhile, a man with a megaphone has climbed a tree outside the court and is calling on “everyone who thinks this government is criminal” to protest. It’s really windy today! https://twitter.com/tvrain/status/1360192683499802624
We are back in court, now at the classic "reading vast reams of documents in an unintelligible monotone" stage. Assume you must learn how to mumble rapidly like this in Russian law school
If I thought this was fun, just wait until the closing arguments and the verdict, when I get to hear all this exact same stuff read out again
We are deep into the process of learning every single possible fact about Navalny's life, including which bank accounts he has, the Chevrolet and Range Rover his wife owns, and how many followers he has on YouTube. Some of the reporters near me are visibly fighting off sleep.
An elderly witness is apparently waiting to be let into the building and freezing in the massive snowstorm currently going on outside. Navalny demands to let him in, but the judge and prosecutor insist he has to wait until they finish reading out endless papers.
The judge gives Navalny another reprimand. "No, judge, you're reprimanded!" he says.
Navalny cross-examines the prosecution linguistic expert witness, who has testified that he defamed Artemenko without mentioning him.
"I can see on these journalists' faces that they want a drink. Did I offend the guy in the jacket or the girl in the sweater?"
"I can see on these journalists' faces that they want a drink. Did I offend the guy in the jacket or the girl in the sweater?"
We watch the ad for Putin's constitutional changes featuring Artemenko four times.
"Let's watch a bit more, it's just getting interesting," says Navalny. "Of course I consider everyone who made Putin the tsar stooges and traitors. And those who turned a veteran into a puppet."
"Let's watch a bit more, it's just getting interesting," says Navalny. "Of course I consider everyone who made Putin the tsar stooges and traitors. And those who turned a veteran into a puppet."
This is the offending Russia Today ad, in case anyone else wants to watch it four times. Features such characters as "the guy from Russian Scrubs who said gay people should be burnt alive in ovens" and "the guy who makes knockoff Russian parmesan cheese"
Meanwhile, Navalny’s appeal hearing against his imprisonment is set for February 20 at 10am.
Navalny’s witness, professor Anton Baranov, managed to make it into the court without freezing to death outside.
“If you say someone is a traitor because he left his wife, it doesn’t mean he betrayed his country.”
“If you say someone is a traitor because he left his wife, it doesn’t mean he betrayed his country.”
“My political views are pretty obvious. You can tell that from where I am,” says Navalny, gesturing at the defendant’s glass cage.
Navalny now claims the veteran's signature varies wildly on various documents he signed, which he says is evidence it was forged "by the investigator, our lovely prosecutor, and his grandson, who has a habit of pimping the old man out."
“I feel very negatively about everyone who supported the constitutional changes,” Navalny says. “They were dreamed up by the people who have been stealing from us for 20 years, including this veteran, so they can stay in power forever.”
Navalny says that he was happy to offend everyone involved in promoting the constitutional changes, but that’s not defamation. He cites the prosecution linguist, who said he didn’t advance any facts. “If I said that Artemenko crossed over the front line, then that’s defamation.”
“I think this video is hideous, rotten, lying, and disgusting. I saw this video and thought, ‘Ah, Russia Today has joined the campaign to deceive as many Russians as possible by pimping out these people’s faces.’”
“I think everyone involved in these constitutional changes are stooges and traitors. It’s much broader than this. All of them, including the Russia Today cameramen and the people who came up with the video down to Ella Pamfilova who forged the ballots, are stooges and traitors.”
“Everyone saw the photo of his grandson driving around in a convertible. He wanted to help the government however he could and pimped out his grandfather.”
The prosecutor implies Navalny is a Nazi who hates veterans, citing his nationalist past and his criticism of holding a victory parade during the pandemic.
Getting more and more of a sense that the whole point of this is to drive Navalny nuts in the hope he has a breakdown on TV
Getting more and more of a sense that the whole point of this is to drive Navalny nuts in the hope he has a breakdown on TV
“We want veterans to have higher pensions, and you want them to remain poor. You don’t have a conscience. You’ve robbed the country and you think you’re cool because you have two stars on your uniform. But you’re just thieves with no conscience.”
Judge: Do you have any chronic diseases? No?
Navalny: Does a severe dislike of the Babushkinsky court count? Because that’s chronic.
Navalny: Does a severe dislike of the Babushkinsky court count? Because that’s chronic.
Navalny argues some more with the prosecutor. And that’s it. Next hearing on Tuesday. Just another day in Russian court!
