The man who laughed in the face of injustice
So on 02.02.20 Moscow City Court performed an unspeakable travesty of justice. They have transformed a suspended sentence, that already expired several times, into a real prison sentence. Alexey Navalny, the main opposition leader, received 2 years and 8 months of prison time, based on the claim that he did not check in with Federal Penitentiary Services and “tried to hide”, thus violating the terms of his parole. Two minor things: first, he was "hiding" in Germany, recovering from GODDAMN POISONING, which basically the whole world knew about; second, this case, the famous “Yves Rocher” fraud case, was already reviewed in the European Court of Human Rights, which declared this case as unreasonable in 2017 and concluded that both Alexey Navalny and his brother Oleg (who got an actual 3.5 year prison sentence in 2014) should receive compensation. And they did receive it, which means even the Russian judicial system had to agree that those charges were bull***t in the first place.
Many Russians say it was not Navalny who received the prison sentence, but actually the 144+ million country, as this may be a sign of the new age of shameless political repressions. If they can do this to Navalny, they can do this to anybody. Try to kill you using taxpayer money and put you in jail for surviving.
Nevertheless, Alexey still managed to stand strong and even crack a couple of jokes during the court session.
Navalny (to his wife): Yulia, they even showed you on TV in my cell. They said you had caused a lot of trouble. Bad girl, I’m so proud of you!
[Yulia Navalnaya participated in the anti-government protests on both January 23 and 31, was detained multiple times and was fined RUR 20.000]
***
The bailiff asks who’s streaming the trial on YouTube and demands to stop it.
Navalny: Me.
***
Navalny (to his lawyer Kobzev): I see you’re reading Twitter. Tell me, what they’re posting, I have a Twitter withdrawal.
***
When the Judge asked him to introduce himself.
Navalny: Well you forgot to introduce yourself, too.
***
The Judge: Where do you live?
Navalny: Currently, in Detention Center #1.
***
The Judge: You may sit.
Navalny: I’ve been sitting since 7 am. May I stand?
The Judge: You may.
***
Navalny: [shows a heart to his wife]
The Bailiff: Stop communicating with gestures!
***
The Judge announces a 2-hour break.
Navalny: Can we send someone to McDonald’s?
[The quotes are taken from TVrain Twitter]
But the funniest thing is that 20 min BEFORE the Judge announced her decision, pro-Kremlin media Russia Today posted an update on how Navalny’s trial was going, and the url literally said “navalny-oshzhden-na-2.5-goda” (Navalny is sentenced to 2 and a half years). Apparently, those propagandists are secretly fortune tellers. Who knew?