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Judge Vera Akimova said Navalnas was guilty of defamation against a war veteran. A. Navaln called the 94-year-old man and several other people “traitors” in his Twitter message when they appeared in a pro-Kremlin video advertising amendments to the Constitution.
V. Akimova ordered A. Navalnas to pay 850 thousand. rubles (9.5 thousand euros) fine.
In his message, A. Navaln condemned the people who, in the aforementioned video, spoke out in favor of the constitutional amendments adopted last year, which pave the way for President Vladimir Putin to remain in power until 2036.
This defamation case was widely covered on state television. Navaln accused the Russian authorities of using the veteran as a “puppet” to compromise his opponent.
“Someday, this court will cost far more than this veteran has received in the last four years from the same state that dares to claim it cares about veterans,” Navaln said.
His supporters said the cases were simply a means of silencing an opponent who exposed government corruption and stifled his political ambitions.
The Kremlin, for its part, said it had nothing to do with the claims against Navalna and that another court’s decision the previous Saturday to reject the opposition’s appeal would not change the balance of Russia’s political forces ahead of the elections. parliamentarians this year.
“Political life will be rich and multifaceted,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The West is pressuring Navalna to release
Navaln, a 44-year-old anti-corruption activist and President Vladimir Putin’s most famous opposition, was arrested on January 17 after arriving at a Moscow airport in Germany, where he was being treated for his nerve paralyzing Novičiok after poisoning. last summer. . He blames the Kremlin and the Federal Security Service (FSB) for this poisoning.
Earlier on Saturday, Judge Dmitry Balashov refused to uphold an appeal against a decision issued on February 2 that a probation sentence handed down against Navalnas in 2014 should receive a real custodial sentence.
Russia has been under pressure in recent weeks for Western countries to release Navalna.
After the poisoning in August, the opposition was dealt with in Germany for several months. Russia has repeatedly claimed that it has nothing to do with the incident.
Navaln’s arrest upon his return to Russia sparked mass protests across the country, during which more than 10,000 people were detained. people. The European Union has warned that it could announce new sanctions on Moscow.
The ECHR announced this week that Russia must release Navalna immediately, but the Russian Justice Ministry immediately rejected the request.
Navaln’s imprisonment has exacerbated Moscow’s crisis in relations with the West, which has continued since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
EU foreign ministers discussing new sanctions against Russia plan to meet with two top Navaln comrades in Brussels on Sunday.
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