Kleptocracy ‘alive and well’ as Putin rival gets jail term
Navalny given 15-day sentence for leading weekend protests
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced Monday to 15 days in jail and fined $350, one day after leading unprecedented anti-government protests that drew thousands to the streets of Moscow and to other rallies across the country.
Navalny, 40, was charged with resisting police orders and organizing a public gathering without a permit. Navalny is no stranger to Russian courtrooms and was not cowed by his visit Monday.
“Hello everyone from Tverskoy Court,” he tweeted. “The time will come when we will judge them (only honestly).”
Navalny denied the charges and blasted the court for refusing to hear defense witnesses. “Even the slightest semblance of justice is totally absent,” he said.
Navalny and his Foundation for Fighting Corruption (FBK) most recently targeted Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, accusing the right-hand man of President Vladimir Putin of amassing yachts, vineyards and country estates through a string of financial schemes and fake companies. A Medvedev spokesman dismissed the claims as propaganda.
“Publicly protesting against Russian leaders is the surest way to get yourself put in jail or worse in Putin’s Russia,” said Hope Harrison, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University. “Putin’s kleptocracy is alive and well.”
Harrison said Putin’s own wealth has been estimated at up to $200 billion. She said Putin’s power is dependent on Russians “not pulling back the curtain to look at its sources, precisely what Navalny has been championing.”
The protest in Moscow, along the city’s iconic Tverskaya Street, drew about 8,000 people, according to police estimates. Protesters shouted “Down with Putin!” and “Putin is a thief!” — chants that echoed among tens of thousands of demonstrators in more than a dozen cities. The Kremlin said most of the protests were not approved for safety reasons. The Moscow protest was not sanctioned after Navalny and other organizers rejected alternative sites, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Hundreds of protesters were detained, drawing scorn from the West. The U.S. State Department tweeted: “U.S. condemns detention of 100s of peaceful protesters in #Russia today. Detaining peaceful protesters is an affront to democratic values.”
Thorbjørn Jagland, secretarygeneral of the Council of Europe, issued a statement saying the Russian response to the protests “raises issues under the European Convention on Human Rights.”
Peskov accused Navalny and FBK of using public anger over corruption claims to incite violence and lawbreaking. He also accused FBK of paying some young people to attend the rallies.
Robert Amsterdam, a U.S.- based lawyer who counts Russians among his clients and once was deported from that country, said Sunday’s protests were unprecedented because they were so widespread.
“The revulsion against corruption is not letting up,” Amsterdam said. “It’s not stopping because the corruption is continuous. It’s in the daily life of people in Russia in a way that people in America can’t even begin to comprehend. And there is no real effort to stop it.”
He said Putin has used perceived military gains in Syria and Ukraine to stoke nationalism and remain popular despite deep economic problems in Russia. Medvedev has received no such pass, Amsterdam said.
Navalny was convicted of embezzlement last month in a highly publicized case that he dismissed as a government-generated sham. He was sentenced to five years in prison. That sentence was suspended, but the conviction could complicate his plans to oppose Putin in the 2018 presidential election.
“He is never going to overturn Putin,” Amsterdam told USA TODAY. “But he’s anti-corruption, even honorable, and Putin doesn’t like that.”