Putin is a naked, thieving king, says Navalny
Despite ending a hunger strike, Russian opposition leader appears in court looking gaunt and skeletal
A GAUNT Alexei Navalny denounced Vladimir Putin as a “naked, thieving king” during a video-link court appearance from prison yesterday, in his first public appearance since ending a hunger strike last week.
The court session – a failed appeal against libel charges that Mr Navalny denounced as politically motivated – came as his team announced that they would have to close his nationwide network of campaign offices following pressure from the authorities.
A thin, shaven-headed Mr Navalny appeared in a prison uniform and described himself as a “dreadful skeleton” following a three-week hunger strike in protest over a lack of medical treatment.
Doctors had warned he could die “at any minute” because of catastrophically high potassium levels in his blood, although the opposition leader later rejected the suggestion that he was at death’s door.
The 44-year-old was appealing against a fine imposed for allegedly slandering a war veteran who had appeared in a video in support of the constitutional amendments that allowed the Russian president to remain in power until 2036. Mr Navalny called the veteran and others the “shame of the country” and said the elderly man’s relatives had “sold him off ” to the Kremlin. The case was unrelated to his parole violations conviction for which the opposition leader was currently serving a three-year sentence in a prison colony.
Mr Navalny used his appearance at the appeal hearing to rail against the Kremlin and the Russian justice system.
“I want to tell the dear court that your king is naked,” he said of Mr Putin. “Millions of people are already shouting about it, because it is obvious.
“Twenty years of his fruitless rule have led to this result: a crown falling from his ears, lies on television; we’ve wasted trillions of roubles and our country continues its slide into poverty.” Mr Navalny’s wife Yulia was in court for the hearing and during a break in proceedings, he asked her to stand in front of the camera so he could see her.
Meanwhile, Leonid Volkov, Mr Navalny’s top ally, announced the shutdown of the entire network of dozens of opposition headquarters. He said it was impossible for them to exist as the authorities had moved to brand the organisation as “extremist”, putting it in the same category as al-qaeda, thus raising the prospect of lengthy jail terms for supporters. However, Mr Volkov, who fled Russia and is living in Lithuania, called on activists to continue their work.
Yesterday also marked the day that Russian authorities launched a criminal case against Mr Navalny, Mr Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov, another aide, on suspicion of opening an organisation that “endangers citizens and their rights”.
Mr Navalny was arrested on his return to Russia in January after recovering in Germany from a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning he and his supporters blamed on Mr Putin.
In a “sting” call by Mr Navalny last year, an FSB agent appeared to confirm that Russian security services had carried out the poisoning.
‘I want to tell the dear court that your king is naked. Millions are shouting about it, because it is obvious’