Thief Putin has turned us all into slaves, says Alexei Navalny

The oppostion leader’s network disbands as he appears in court for the first time after ending his hunger strike.

Alexei Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, leaves Moscow's Babushkinsky district court on Thursday. Picture: AFP

Alexei Navalny’s political network said on Thursday night it was disbanding, as the jailed Kremlin critic appeared in court, gaunt and shaven headed, for the first time since ending his hunger strike.

During the hearing, which is part of an appeal by Mr Navalny against a defamation sentence imposed in February for insulting a World War II veteran, President Vladimir Putin’s best known domestic opponent said he had started eating again.

“I was taken to a bathhouse yesterday... there was a mirror there, I looked at myself -- I am just a horrible skeleton,” Mr Navalny told the court, according to transcript published on his blog.

“I haven’t been this weight since seventh grade.”

He told his wife Yulia who was in court that he is allowed a couple spoonfuls of porridge a day.

The judge later rejected Mr Navalny’s appeal, upholding a fine of 850,000 roubles ($16,610).

Mr Navalny condemned Mr Putin as a “naked, thieving emperor”. “The emperor has no clothes and his crown is slipping. He frantically searches for scraps of holiness, scraps of goodness to steal,” the 44-year-old told the court. “He stole the banner of victory and tries to make a G-string out of it. You are all traitors, you together with your naked king.”

Mr Navalny’s lawyer Olga Mikhailova told reporters that his defence team plans to contest the decision in Russia and at the European Court of Human Rights.

Another court held a hearing Thursday into a request from prosecutors that Mr Navalny’s regional network and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) both be recognised as extremist, equating the organisations with Islamic State and Al-Qa’ida. If the request is met, their activities would be banned, putting members and supporters at risk of jail time. The hearings are set to resume on May 17.

The head of the regional network, Leonid Volkov, however, said he was “officially disbanding Navalny’s network”. He added that some of the offices would continue their activities as independent, political organisations.

Prosecutors this week ordered the network to suspend its activities ahead of the ruling and a court imposed sweeping bans on the FBK, which was launched in 2011 and routinely releases investigations into alleged corruption by officials at all levels of government, often accompanied by YouTube videos.

Mr Navalny was arrested in January after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had spent months recovering from a poisoning attack that he says was orchestrated by Mr Putin. Authorities have increased pressure against Navalny’s supporters since his return, with many top aides having left the country or been placed under house arrest.

On Thursday, a court sentenced a former co-ordinator of Navalny’s offices in the northern city of Arkhangelsk to 2 ½ years behind bars on charges of spreading pornography by reposting on social media a music video by German metal band Rammstein.

Also Thursday, Mr Navalny’s allies said that while studying the extremism case files they discovered that Mr Navalny, Mr Volkov and FBK head Ivan Zhdanov are facing criminal charges that they were previously unaware of.

They are accused of creating an organisation “infringing upon the liberties and rights of individuals”, an offence punishable by up to four years in jail.

While Mr Volkov and Mr Zhdanov are abroad, new charges could be used to keep Navalny in prison for several more years.

Mr Navalny is serving a 2½- year sentence in a penal colony outside Moscow for violating parole terms on old politically motivated fraud charges. The opposition leader refused food for three weeks, demanding adequate medical treatment in prison for severe back pain and numbness in his limbs.

Mr Navalny’s deteriorating health sparked nationwide protests last Wednesday that saw close to 2,000 people detained.

Last week he ended the 24-day hunger strike after he was examined at a civilian hospital.

AFP