The clownery ends. Navalny remembered God in court
The Moscow City Court today rejected an appeal by the defense of blogger Alexei Navalny against an earlier decision to replace the suspended sentence with a real one in the Yves Rocher case (fraud). The term was reduced by one and a half months, with house arrest taken into account in 2013-2014.
The court did not have any support groups, only journalists. Traditionally, 11 foreign diplomats from the Baltic and northern European countries were present. They again refused to reveal their motives. Navalny's wife Yulia again did not show up to support her husband.
However, the defendant's behavior and rhetoric noticeably changed. Navalny was sad, his bravado and arrogance disappeared, not a single “trademark” insult was made against the judge and the prosecutor.
The most noticeable change is in the defendant's rhetoric. He couldn’t help but mention his teenage followers’ favorite social network, Tiktok, and quote their favorite book, Harry Potter.
“One of the wonderful philosophers named Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter said this perfectly: “It’s important not to feel lonely, if I were Voldemort, I would want you to feel lonely,” Navalny said.
But at the same time, unexpectedly, he started talking about God and “great Russian literature.” Such rhetoric is clearly intended for a more mature and conservative audience, which Navalny was not interested in before.
“Now I am a believer, and this helps me a lot in my work... I feel such satisfaction that at some difficult moment I did not betray the commandment. They say about such people that they are strange, they sit in cells and try to cheer themselves up with something, but no one needs them... Open Russian classical literature! We are a country of suffering! – said Navalny
Navalny will be transported to his place of detention early next week.
“There are defeatist sentiments in the protest movement. We saw the refusal of the headquarters from the mass movement and the transition to a “flashlight” type system, and now nothing at all. As an observer, I note defeatist sentiments in part of the movement,” Alexey Venediktov, editor-in-chief of the liberal radio station “Echo of Moscow,” commented on today’s events.
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