Guilty as charged

TODAY, after a three-month show-trial in Kirov, Alexei Navalny (pictured), an opposition leader, was found guilty of a “serious crime” of stealing timber. If upheld, the verdict will bar him from elections, including 2018’s presidential poll. Yet only a day earlier he registered as a candidate to be Moscow’s mayor. This had created a dilemma for President Vladimir Putin: how to get rid of Mr Navalny, but also how to use him to give the Moscow election in September greater legitimacy. The obvious contradictions in the Kremlin's actions is also a reflection of infighting between different players within the ruling elite and the ad hoc nature of decision making in Russia.

Over the past few months Mr Navalny has turned from an anti-corruption blogger into an opposition leader to be reckoned with. He has circumvented the state monopoly on television news and made a large hole in a seemingly solid political system which he has ridiculed as a “toad sitting on an oil vent”. As if to prove his point, the judge gave him a five-year jail sentence (the prosecutors had asked for six).

Every step of the way, Mr Navalny has...Continue reading