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Back in court at Navalny’s trial for defaming a 94-year-old WWII veteran.
The prosecutor asks to submit additional evidence of Navalny insulting the veteran, the judge, and herself.
“Seriously?” says Navalny. “I was the nicest, quietest defendant you can imagine.”
The prosecutor asks to submit additional evidence of Navalny insulting the veteran, the judge, and herself.
“Seriously?” says Navalny. “I was the nicest, quietest defendant you can imagine.”
"We just saw another case be born!" says Navalny. "You'll probably testify by video too and say: I was insulted, I became unwell and I felt heart palpitations," he tells the prosecutor.
There's a law about "insulting a government official" that could jail him for more years.
There's a law about "insulting a government official" that could jail him for more years.
Navalny's lawyer tells him @mediazzzona editor Sergei Smirnov, currently in jail on an absurd protest-related charge, sends him his "hugest, flaming regards."
"What a brave new world!" Navalny says. "You can say hi from the aquarium to someone in the detention center!"
"What a brave new world!" Navalny says. "You can say hi from the aquarium to someone in the detention center!"
The judge says it's too early to file new charges against Navalny from this trial and denies the prosecution motion. We continue.
The prosecutor starts her closing argument with the preamble to Russia's constitution.
"These serious words speak of our statehood," she says. "Nobody has made any changes to these words."
Reminder, the reason this is happening: Navalny criticized Putin's constitutional changes
"These serious words speak of our statehood," she says. "Nobody has made any changes to these words."
Reminder, the reason this is happening: Navalny criticized Putin's constitutional changes
Navalny is charged with calling people in an RT ad "stooges and traitors."
"If the defendant was insane, that'd be an excuse. But he knew exactly what he was doing. What, does he think Ignat Sergeevich, a 94-year-old World War II veteran, doesn't care about dignity and honor?"
"If the defendant was insane, that'd be an excuse. But he knew exactly what he was doing. What, does he think Ignat Sergeevich, a 94-year-old World War II veteran, doesn't care about dignity and honor?"
"He was wearing a uniform, and under his video were words on the verge of insanity. Even if Navalny thought he was completely innocent, he didn't see fit to apologize, but in the presence of Ignat Sergeevich continued to insult a man who had given him the gift of his own future."
"What was he counting on? That nobody would talk to him, that a 93-year-old veteran won't defend his dignity an honor, that we don't care about our ancestors. Our conscience, our Constitution, and Artemenko won't let us. Thank you, Ignat Sergeevich, for that!"
At Navalny's first trial in 2013, the Kremlin wanted to convince Russians he was corrupt and held long mumbly hearings made up of indecipherable financial nonsense.
That didn't work. Now the focus is on calling him a Nazi – the prosecutor's speech is as political as Navalny's.
That didn't work. Now the focus is on calling him a Nazi – the prosecutor's speech is as political as Navalny's.
The prosecutor says everyone in the RT ad could have pushed for charges even if Navalny didn't mention them.
"They all had the right to file a defamation complaint,but not everyone joined the partisans at the age of 15, not everyone saw how his friend died from a bullet wound."
"They all had the right to file a defamation complaint,but not everyone joined the partisans at the age of 15, not everyone saw how his friend died from a bullet wound."
Whatever way you slice it, this is the most impact any RT video has had since they aired a bizarre anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton being in the Illuminati. (They later claimed this was "satire," but it really doesn't feel like it)
After a lengthy discussion of the legal definition of libel, the prosecutor moves on to explaining why Navalny is a Nazi.
We learn how he "used rhetoric similar to that of Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army," the Russian force that collaborated with Germany in World War II.
We learn how he "used rhetoric similar to that of Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army," the Russian force that collaborated with Germany in World War II.
"The state prosecution asks..." the prosecutor says before tailing off.
"To shoot me?" jokes Navalny.
The prosecutor now demands a 950,000 ruble fine, which she wants to convert to a three-and-a-half year prison sentence since Navalny was on parole after a different conviction.
"To shoot me?" jokes Navalny.
The prosecutor now demands a 950,000 ruble fine, which she wants to convert to a three-and-a-half year prison sentence since Navalny was on parole after a different conviction.
Navalny's turn for closing arguments. "From the start of this case, any lawyer would just laugh at it. Defamation requires spreading demonstrably false *facts*. Their expert is some girl from an institute run by the Investigative Committe. And we brought a much cooler professor."
"But even their expert, just like our expert, said there were no facts. Just subjective opinions. So why are we still here?" Navalny says. "Every other document is forged." He demands to check signatures on Artemenko's statements, which he says were signed by different people.
Navalny tells a joke. "A man puts his hand in his pocket and thinks he found a condom. He takes it out and realizes it's a teabag. 'What a boring person I am,' he thinks. Our prosecutor isn't – she reaches into her pocket and there's a new statement from Artemenko."
Navalny argues Artemenko's grandson is "pimping him out" and getting paid for this trial. "His official salary is 3,000 rubles a month and he bought a convertible and a Mercedes G-Class. I make a lot more than that and I can't afford cars like that."
"I don't have salt in my cell," Navalny says. "I ask my wife to get me some and it doesn't work, but when she ordered cucumbers, I got them. Then they bring me 3 kilos of salt. So since there's no sense in talking about the law with you, will you share a pickle recipe?"
The prosecutor declines to tell Navalny anything she knows about pickles. He will have to work it out himself. Navalny's lawyer Olga Mikhailova now makes her closing arguments. She says Navalny never mentioned Artemenko and didn't say anything that meets the defamation statute.
Navalny's other lawyer Vadim Kobzev is now speaking. "Would there be a criminal case if Navalny called the people in the video noobz and cheaters? Probably not!"
And that’s it for today. More hearings set for Saturday afternoon – right after Navalny’s appeal against a different sentence in a different court.
