In a glass case in a courtroom in Moscow, Alexei Navalny complained to the judge, mocking a prison official and sparing with the prosecutor.
At the end of a long day in court, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic shows his softer side, smiles at his wife Yulia and draws a heart on the glass of his cage.
Since his arrest in mid-January, after returning from Germany where he had been treated for poisoning, Navalny has turned a series of hearings in Russia’s usually colorless courtrooms into striking acts of political theater.
The 44-year-old trained lawyer, in turn, defiantly, mockingly and lovingly used court appearances to build up his support, anger his opponents and form an image as Russia’s leading political prisoner.
Navalny turned his trial on Feb. 2, when a judge ordered him to face nearly three years in prison on charges of fraud, into a scathing attack on Putin.
Navalny mocked the Russian leader over allegations that the nerve agent used by the Novichok to poison him was placed in his underwear, and Navalny told the court that Putin “would go down in history as an underpants poisoner.”
He mocked officials and prosecutors in court, mocking their allegations that he had to show up for parole appointments by pointing out that he was in a coma.
She was making heart signs for his wife, shortly before Judge Natalya Repnikova read the sentence, splashing across newspapers around the world.
Much of what Navalny does in court is carefully calculated, political observer Konstantin Kalachev in Moscow compared his February 2 speech to that of a revolutionary in Tsarist Russia.
“He is working on his image,” said the head of the Political Expert Group.
– ‘Political prostitutes’ –
But some of Navalny’s outbursts in court are clearly impulsive, Kalachev added.
“We are all human, and sometimes he gets carried away by his emotions,” he said.
Days after his imprisonment, Navalny again stood trial on charges of defaming a World War II veteran, part of a group of Russians in a video of the Kremlin describing Navalny as ‘traitors’.
He once again stole the show and mocked the judge and clashed with relatives of the veteran, whose family he accused as a political prostitute and used the 94-year-old.
Judge Vera Akimova at one point threatened to remove Navalny from the courtroom and the trial was suspended when the veteran said he was feeling unwell and an ambulance was called.
Navalny was back in court on Friday for the next hearing in the defamation case, and showed no signs of withdrawal when he reprimanded the judge.
“Stop embarrassing yourself and sign up for some courses to improve your knowledge of the laws of the Russian Federation,” Navalny said, supporting a request from his lawyer to replace the judge.
If the trial on February 2 was a piece of political drama, the defamation trial would have become a comedy, political analyst Anton Orekh said.
But the appearance is also Navalny’s only chance to continue his fight against the authorities.
“If you do not have the opportunity to take part in ballot boxes and speak in parliament, if you do not have the opportunity to take to the streets peacefully and express your feelings and thoughts, if you have access to state- “TV is deprived of channels, the only thing left is a courtroom,” Orekh wrote on his blog.
Since acting as the Kremlin’s leading critic a decade ago, Navalny has stood in stark contrast to Putin, painting the 68-year-old as out of touch.
In the era of social media, Navalny’s courtroom is attacking especially young Russians, Kalachev said.
“Putin is losing support among young people, according to polls,” he said. “To young men he is like a stranger, a man from the moon.”
Navalny “speaks the same language as young people, they can see themselves in him,” Kalachev added. “His clothes, his taste, his wife, his family … he represents the urban middle class.”
tbm-pop-axis / mm / ach