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Russian Court Sentences Alexei Navalny to 3.5 Years in Prison

Charles Maynes

   MOSCOW - A Russian court has sentenced opposition politician Alexei
   Navalny to three and a half years in prison, defying condemnation
   abroad and public outcry at home to send one of the Kremlin's most
   vocal critics to jail.
   Given that the opposition figure had previously spent 10 months under
   house arrest during a previous phase of the trial, the verdict means
   Navalny will now spend the next two years and eight months in a Russian
   penal colony.
   The court found Navalny violated his parole from a prior 2014 suspended
   sentence by failing to notify prison authorities of his whereabouts
   when he was evacuated to Berlin for treatment following a near-fatal
   poisoning attack.
   "In spite of the court's humanity, Navalny was in violation more than
   once," argued the prosecutor noting the parole violations.
   Navalny insists -- and international media investigations suggest --
   the poison attack was carried out by Russian security services who
   laced his underwear with a military grade nerve agent while the
   opposition leader was traveling in Siberia last August. Russian
   authorities deny this.
   Navalny arrived in Berlin in a coma only after President Vladimir Putin
   approved his evacuation following repeated delays -- and little
   certainty he'd survive the
   attempt on his life.
   'Putin the underwear poisoner'

   "What more could I have done?" Asked Navlany to the court. "I was in a
   coma."
   The opposition politician has long argued his 2014 conviction was
   politically motivated effort to disqualify him from running for office
   under current Russian law.
   The affair also pressured him personally: he spent the better part of a
   year under house arrest, while his brother, Oleg, served out a 3.5 year
   jail term.
   In a fiery speech from a glass enclosure before Tuesday's verdict,
   Navalny railed at Putin again -- alleging, this time, the Russian
   leader had simply wanted him dead.
   "I offended him to death by surviving" said Navalny in reference to
   Putin as journalists and his wife Yulia looked on in the courtroom.
   "However much he pretends to be a great geo-politician, he'll go down
   in history as a poisoner. There was Alexander the Liberator, Yaroslav
   the Wise, and Putin the Underwear Poisoner," said Navalny.
   "The most important thing in this process is not what happens to me,"
   added Navalny. "They're putting one person in prison to scare
   millions."
   As the judge rendered the verdict, Navalny drew a heart on the glass
   holding cage while smiling at his wife.
   In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed
   concern over the sentencing and called for immediate release of Navalny
   as well as "hundreds of other Russian citizens wrongfully detained in
   recent weeks for exercising their rights."

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