Navalny (Defamation Trial)

source: Libération

author:  Lucien Jacques, Moscow correspondent

translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise

RUSSIA

Navalny libel lawsuit between hot and cold

Prosecuted for defamation against a veteran of the Second World War, the regime's opponent saw his trial turn into a free for all. This latest episode spoils a little more the image of Russian justice and power, but also that of Alexeï Navalny, whose personality continues to provoke

Alexei Navalny on February 12, in front of the Babushkinsky court in Moscow. (AP)

This Tuesday, the Babushkinsky court in Moscow looks like a building under siege, surrounded by police cords, police parked nearby, ready to embark at the least disturbance... The everyday of yet another trial involving Alexeï Navalny . It is inside the building that the fight is taking place: “Navalny against the veteran” Ignat Artemenko, 94 years old, former World War II. Tuesday, the third hearing Tuesday was cut short, like the previous two, February 5 and 12, which had turned into chaos and  interrupted at the end of the day.

The case defies understanding, even by the standards of Russian justice, never stingy for a Kafkaesque trial against opponents of the Kremlin. It dates back to the summer of 2020, during the campaign which led to the adoption by referendum of a constitutional reform allowing Vladimir Putin to remain in power until 2036. At the time, the pro-Kremlin channel Russia Today broadcast a clip in which different personalities called to vote yes: actors, singers ... Among them, Ignat Artemenko, one of those old men with a chest covered with medals who are the object of a real cult in Russia. At the time, Alexeï Navalny spotted the video and made a sharp comment about the participants, whom he called “traitors” and “lackeys”.The message could have gone unnoticed, but Ignat Artemenko filed a complaint against the opponent for defamation. It is this case, diluted by his poisoning in August , followed by his spectacular return to Russia in January, which brings Navalny before the Babushkinsky court in Moscow.

"Selling Grandfather "

The context is paradoxical: unlike his other cases, where prison sentences have been requested or pronounced against him, Navalny risks at most a heavy fine. But for once, the accusation against him finds an echo in Russian society, very attached to respect for veterans. It also strikes directly at the opponent's weak point: his divisive personality, which prevents many Russians from supporting him. And if the objective was to attract Navalny, very comfortable when it comes to transforming a courtroom into a political platform, in a mud fight, the Kremlin propagandists can rejoice: he rushed headlong into the trap. From the start of the first hearing, on February 5, the trial degenerated into a spectacle where the absurd disputes it with sadness, the chaotic with the revolting.

During his testimony by videoconference, Artemenko does not hear the questions put to him and ends up falling ill. Navalny argues that the former soldier is reading, without understanding anything, a text written in advance, shouts that judges and prosecutors "will burn in hell" for having helped Putin "to hide behind an old man to whom [they have] stuck medals ”. The questioning of witnesses turns into a farce, the judge canceling one by one all the questions asked by the defense and systematically declining the lawyers' requests. Then the trial turns into a screaming match between the grandson of the veteran, called to the bar, and Alexeï Navalny, who, from the accused's box, calls him a "grandfather salesman"and accuses him of having been paid to file a complaint. The prosecutor ostensibly bursts into tears as she reads in detail the veteran's service records and, in her indictment, accuses Navalny of participating in a " campaign to discredit the victory in the great patriotic war ". Since then, each audience has added elements to the ongoing circus. Tuesday, Alexeï Navalny apostrophized the prosecutor, throwing him a provoking: "You want to shoot me?"

"Against the foundations of the Russian nation"

“ The goal is to demean Navalny on the moral plane,” advances columnist Mikhail Shevchuk. To show that he is not fighting against corruption, but against the very foundations of the Russian nation. The verdict could have been announced at the first hearing, it has certainly been ready for a long time, but the sponsors of this trial have an interest in keeping Navalny there as long as possible. Let him get angry and slip up. " In the state media , selected excerpts from this long deposition have been blown out to present Navalny as a provocateur and a negationist, a "Führer in boxers," quipped the presenter Vladimir Soloviev.

The next session has therefore been scheduled for Saturday February 20. The judge will read the verdict then, probably a fine of around ten thousand euros, the maximum penalty for defamation, required this Tuesday by the prosecutor. But the filth of this trial will stick for a long time: to Navalny, to the Russian justice system and to the Kremlin propagandists, who will have once again demonstrated, if necessary again, that no means are too base for them.