Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and a vociferous Government critic, who has been serving his time in jail since January 2021 on an embezzlement sentence, made his first public appearance since holding a 24-day hunger strike during an appeal against a defamation conviction that he branded to be politically motivated.
Alexei Navalny, looking gaunt yet spirited, appeared by video link in court on Thursday (April 29, 2021) just as his anti-corruption network inches closer to shutting down after a Babushkinsky District Court ordered the suspension of its activities and the networks unwillingness to work amidst the Kremlin incessant efforts to declare it an extremist organization, a term often applied to groups like Al-Qaida.
The opposition leader’s first public appearance since he assumed his 24-day long hunger strike over the lack of proper medical attention, saw him sporting a shaved head and wearing a prison jacket, was aimed to appeal to void an 850,000 ruble fine in connection with the conviction of Navalny on a charge of defamation of a World War II veteran that was, unsurprisingly rejected by the court.
In the courtroom speech, Navalny didn’t shy away from donning his critique-cap and accused the government of turning ‘Russians into slaves’ and called Vladimir Putin a ‘naked king’, a bold, unmissable reference to Han Christians Andersen’s folk story The Emperor’s New Clothes and also referred the Russian President as, ‘a naked, thieving king wanting to continue to rule until the end’.
As the court hearings become a routine for Navalny, the sun isn’t even near to setting on his problems, with new charges pressed on Navalny and two aids, Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov for being suspects in a criminal case on account of opening a non-governmental organization alleged to endanger citizens and their rights, a charge, which has been widely termed to be politically motivated.
Last year in August, the anti-corruption activist fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow after having been poisoned with a novel form of the Novichok nerve agent, after which he was evacuated to Germany, where he recovered till January, after which he flew back to Russia and was eventually arrested.
