The real face of Aleksei Navalny: convicted for embezzlement, he protests "corruption" - Like This Article

March 28, 2017 - Fort Russ News -

Roberto Vivaldelli, in Occhi della Guerra, translated from Italian by Tom Winter

The blogger Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 15 days in jail after anti-government protests that were held yesterday in Moscow and other major Russian cities. 

The well-known oppositionist, "the man that Putin fears most" according to the Wall Street Journal, has ended up in prison, and was fined 20 thousand rubles (280 pounds), by a court in Moscow, on a charge of disobeying orders of the authorities and organizing an illegal demonstration, which led to the arrest of another 700 people protesting against corruption and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. 

From jail Navalny posted a photo on Twitter complete with a caption which makes a mockery of the court: "The time will come when we will be tried (but fairly)."

An unauthorized demonstration 

"What we witnessed yesterday, particularly in Moscow, was the result of provocation and deceit, as the demonstrators claimed that the event was legitimate and had not violated the law in any way - and this is a blatant lie," Dmitry Peskov explained to reporters. "The Kremlin respects civil positions of the people and their right to express these positions. But we can not accept those who deliberately mislead people, provoking in an illegal manner," he added.

A convicted embezzler symbol of the fight against corruption 

The case has provoked reactions from the international community, catapulting Navalny into the eye of a media storm, and making a new idol of liberal opinion out of the blogger/lawyer.

First of all it should be noted that we are speaking of a person with a very significant criminal profile. Last February, the Appeals Court of the Kirov District Court upheld his conviction entailing 5 years imprisonment, with a conditional suspended sentence. This occurred in the context of a trial for embezzlement, totaling around 250,000 Euros, from the State company Kirovles, famous for its construction materials.

The penalty fit with what the prosecution had asked relative to the damages and perfectly reflects the first sentence imposed against him.

Last November, the European Court of Human Rights had judged the first trial "irregular." It was therefore annulled by the Russian Supreme Court, with orders to review the case, as was later done. According to the indictment, Navalny convinced the state company Kirovles to sign a contract with the firm of his friend Ofitserov. The contractual terms were deemed to entail an illegal appropriation of funds.

The racist/nationalist liked in the West 

"Nationalist and xenophobic," and as such he was expelled from Yabloko liberal party in 2007. Despite the support of the progressive world and the liberal bloggers laboring in their anti-Putin mode, few seem to know his real positions. As Peter Hitchens wrote in the Daily Mail in December 2014, "very few seem to know about the Navlny's ties to Russian nationalism, positions that, by comparison, make the British UKIP as the vanguard of political correctness." 

Engelina Tareyeva, who worked with Navalny when he was a member of the party, accuses him of being a racist: "I consider Alexei Navalny the most dangerous man in Russia," she said. "It doesn't take a genius to realize that the most horrible thing that can happen is if the nationalists take power."

Criticism of Navalny came especially from his participation in racist protests, including the "Russian March" in Moscow in 2011 and in the campaign "Stop Feeding The Caucasus!" The blogger also spurred on the collection of signatures in order to introduce a visa regime with the countries of the Caucasus and Asia. In one video, he compared terrorists in the Caucasus to "cockroaches" to be crushed.

The real opposition calls him "another Yeltsin."

Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Russian Communist Party, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, deputy chairman of the Duma and leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party, remain the two historical opponents of United Russia and Putin. The same Zyuganov criticized Navalny, comparing him to a kind of modern and new Boris Yeltsin: "The Russian people have had a good vaccination against Yeltsinism" he said in 2015.

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The real face of Aleksei Navalny: convicted for embezzlement, he protests "corruption" - Like This Article

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