Putin opponent found guilty of fraud
KIROV: A Russian judge said yesterday that opposition leader Alexei Navalny was guilty of embezzlement, Interfax news agency reported, a decision that may force the activist to drop his plan to run in next year’s presidential election.
The judge at the court in Kirov was still reading his verdict, but it was clear from his remarks Navalny would be found guilty.
Navalny said during a break that the new verdict repeated word for word a previous court ruling which the European Court of Human Rights found had violated his rights.
“They were too lazy to write another one.
“It was a demonstration that they don’t give a damn about the European Court and can take the old verdict,” he said.
Late last year he announced his plan to run for president in 2018, when Vladimir Putin’s term expires. Under Russian law, he would be banned from running for 10 years if convicted of a serious crime.
Prosecutors asked for a five-year suspended sentence.
The opposition leader says the prosecution is aimed at barring him from political activity. The Kremlin denies that. Asked if Navalny’s absence from the presidential race would undermine the legitimacy of the election, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday: “We believe any concerns about this are inappropriate.”
Meanwhile, Putin was scheduled to meet Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Mueller in Moscow late yesterday. Since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and the West responded by imposing sanctions on Moscow, Putin has not received many leading European industrialists in the Kremlin on a one-on-one basis.
Peskov said Putin and Mueller would discuss the possible expansion of Volkswagen’s business in Russia.
Volkswagen makes cars and engines at a factory in Kaluga, about 170km outside Moscow.
The company also has some models assembled at another factory.
Relations between the EU and Russia have become hostage to the linkage between sanctions and the implementation of Minsk agreements, which was artificially imposed by the bloc, said Russia’s Ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov.
“They made up this linkage as an element for their self-justification. This linkage was invented only when the sanctions were already in place. It was a response to the sentiments that had already emerged by that time in favour of rolling back or lifting the restrictive measures.”
According to Chizhov, Kiev has proven to be unable to fulfil its obligations under the Minsk agreements and “seeks to pass it on to someone else”.
“The fact that the European Union has de facto adopted Kiev’s logic is a key moment here,” Chizhov added.
In February 2015, Kiev and pro-independence militia in Donbas reached a ceasefire deal after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
The West, which has imposed sanctions on Russia over its alleged interference in the crisis, has repeatedly named the implementation of the deal as a precondition to lifting of the restrictions.