MOSCOW — Alexei Navalny voiced hope for a greater future in Russia as his supporters held pickets and demonstrations to mark the imprisoned opposition chief’s forty seventh birthday on Sunday.
Navalny is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of courtroom, expenses he says have been trumped as much as punish him for his work to reveal official corruption and organizing anti-Kremlin protests.
He is dealing with a brand new trial on extremism expenses that might preserve him in jail for many years. Kremlin critics view the case as one other Russian authorities try to isolate President Vladimir Putin’s most outstanding foe.
Navalny’s associates known as for demonstrations to point out help for him in Russia and overseas on Sunday.
Risking their very own jail phrases, some Navalny supporters in Russia marked his birthday by holding particular person pickets, whereas others painted graffiti. At least 45 folks have been detained, in response to the OVD-Info group that displays political arrests.
Police beefed up their presence in downtown Moscow and moved shortly to spherical up those that tried to stage particular person pickets on Pushkin Square and elsewhere within the capital.
One man managed to throw round leaflets earlier than being whisked away.
A girl holding a small black balloon with the phrases “Happy Birthday!” who was clad in a hoody with “You aren’t alone” written on it was amongst these detained. She requested officers why they have been detaining her, however they didn’t reply.
Navalny’s supporters additionally confirmed up in St. Petersburg and different Russian cities, holding one-person pickets and leaving indicators and graffiti in Navalny’s help. Many have been detained.
Pro-Navalny demonstrations have been held in a number of European cities.
Navalny mentioned in a social media put up launched by his allies that he would clearly favor to spend his birthday with a household breakfast, kisses from his youngsters and presents, however “life is such that social progress and a better future can only be achieved if a certain number of people are willing to pay for the right to have beliefs.”
“The more there are such people, the smaller the price each has to pay,” he mentioned. “And a day will certainly come when it will be routine and not dangerous at all to tell the truth and stand for justice in Russia.”
Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after he recuperated in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
He initially acquired a 2½-year jail sentence for a parole violation. Last 12 months, he was sentenced to 9 years for fraud and contempt of courtroom. He is presently serving time at a maximum-security jail 150 miles east of Moscow.
The extremism expenses towards Navalny, which may preserve him in jail for 30 years, relate to the actions of his anti-corruption basis and statements by his prime associates. His allies mentioned the costs retroactively criminalize all of the actions of Navalny’s basis since its creation in 2011.
The new accusations come as Russian authorities are conducting an intensified crackdown on dissent amid the preventing in Ukraine, which Navalny has harshly criticized.
A Moscow courtroom scheduled a preliminary listening to Tuesday to debate technical points associated to a brand new trial of Navalny, rejecting a request by his attorneys for extra time to look at voluminous new expenses that he rejected as “absurd.”
Navalny additionally has cited an investigator telling him that he additionally would face a separate army courtroom trial on terrorism expenses that doubtlessly carry a life sentence.
He mentioned in a social media put up Sunday that he sees his jail time period “just as an unpleasant part of my favorite job” and thanked his supporters.
“My plan for the previous year was not to grow brutal and embittered and not to lose the nonchalance of behavior – this is where defeat begins,” he wrote. “And if I succeeded, it was only thanks to your support.”
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