Week-ending 10 December 2021
On 9 December a district court in Vladimir region held a preliminary hearing concerning prisoner of conscience Aleksei Navalny’s lawsuit against the administration of the prison where he is serving his sentence. Meduza reports that the prison administration has placed Navalny under ‘preventive supervision’ as an inmate ‘prone to commit crimes of an extremist orientation.’ Navalny took part in the hearing via video link. A further court date is scheduled for 28 December.
On 5 November 2021 Dozhd produced a remarkable film describing the torturous conditions in which Navalny is being held in the penal colony.
Sources:
Meduza, 9 December 2021: On Thursday, December 9, a district court in Russia’s Vladimir Region held a preliminary hearing on Alexey Navalny’s latest lawsuit against the administration of the prison where he is serving out his sentence. The Kremlin critic is suing to overturn the prison administration’s decision to place him under preventive supervision as an inmate “prone to commit crimes of an extremist orientation.” Navalny took part in the hearing via video link. The next court date is scheduled for December 28.
Dozhd: ‘Пытки для Навального: кем его окружили в колонии, как компрометируют и ломают’ [see also below]
Other news:
RFE/RL, 6 December 2021: Another associate of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has left Russia amid an ongoing crackdown against the defunct organizations associated with the Kremlin critic that were labeled as extremist earlier this year. Aleksandr Chernikov, the former head of Navalny’s network of regional campaign groups in Russia’s far-western exclave of Kaliningrad, told the Novy Kaliningrad newspaper on December 6 that he and his family are currently in the United States where they have asked for political asylum.
The Moscow Times, 7 December 2021: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s investigation into President Vladimir Putin’s alleged $1.3 billion palace was the most popular video on Russian YouTube in 2021, the video platform announced Monday.
RFE/RL, 8 December 2021: A court in Moscow has sentenced a man to 32 months in prison for damaging a vehicle of the Federal Security Service (FSB) during January protest rallies in support of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny. The Tver district court on December 8 found vlogger Konstantin Lakeyev guilty of damaging FSB property and sentenced him the same day.
The Moscow Times, 8 December 2021: A popular Russian TikTok blogger has been sentenced to nearly three years in a prison colony for damaging a car belonging to the security services during anti-government protests in January.
Meduza, 10 December 2021: Lawyer Vladimir Voronin says he’s been removed from the proceedings on the criminal case against his client Liliya Chanysheva, the former head of Alexey Navalny’s campaign office in Ufa.
