- The opposition leader in prison says Russia’s leaders are doomed
- The appeal was rejected by the Moscow court
- The judge interrupted Navalny’s board
LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, jailed on Tuesday, condemned President Vladimir Putin, calling the Kremlin chief doomed a madman who started a “stupid war” that destroys innocent people in both Ukraine and Ukraine. and in Russia.
Unsuccessfully appealing his last nine-year sentence, Navalny used his appeal to a Moscow court to launch a vicious attack on Putin and the war – a rare public act of dissent in a country where criticizing the army and its crime is a crime. “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Condemning Putin’s Russia as a country ruled by thieves and criminals, Navalny said Russia’s current leaders would eventually be crushed by the forces of history and burned in hell to create a bloodbath in Ukraine.
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“This is a stupid war that your Putin started,” Navalny, 45, told the Moscow Court of Appeals via video link from a penal colony. “This war is built on lies.”
“A madman stuck his nails in Ukraine and I don’t know what he wants to do with him – this crazy thief,” Navalny told Putin.
The judge repeatedly interrupted Navalny.
Navalny, by far Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, is appealing a nine-year prison sentence handed down in March for fraud and contempt of court, in addition to two or two years in prison.
He denies all charges against him and says they were fabricated to thwart his political ambitions. His appeal was rejected by the court.
A former lawyer who became famous more than a decade ago by ridiculing Putin’s elite and alleging huge-scale corruption, Navalny has long predicted that Russia could face seismic political turmoil through riots.
He won admiration from the diverse Russian opposition for returning voluntarily to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he underwent treatment for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia.
On his return he was thrown into prison. Russia denies Navalny’s claims that Russian secret police poisoned him with Novichok.
DEFEAT IS MANY
Navalny described the “facts” of the accusation as “lies” – and compared them to the lies he said Putin, Russia’s top leader since the last day of 1999, had used to launch the February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
“What do you want to achieve – do you want short-term control, to fight with future generations, to fight for the future of Russia?” Navalny asked the court. “All of you will suffer a historic defeat.
“Your time will pass,” Navalny said. “When you are all burning in hell, your grandfathers will add wood to your fires.
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected Navalny’s claims about Putin, who he says has won many fair elections in Russia since 2000 and remains the country’s most popular politician. It rejected Navalny’s claim that Putin was corrupt as nonsense.
Putin says a “special military operation” in Ukraine is needed to demilitarize and “denationalize” the country, and because the United States used Ukraine to threaten Russia through NATO enlargement, Moscow had to defend itself against persecution of Russian-speakers.
Ukraine and its Western allies reject this as an unfounded pretext for invading a sovereign state.
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Writing by Guy Falkonbridge; Edited by Mark Trevelyan and Raisa Kasolowski
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