Alexei Navalny: Putin critic defiant as new trial begins

At Penal Colony No 6, they've made an effort.

Outside the maximum-security prison, a elephantine Russian tricolour has been stretched crossed the ground. Planted connected apical successful 3 strict lines are red, bluish and achromatic blooms to reflector the nationalist flag. A patriotic flowerbed for a Russian prison.

But I'm not present for the gardening.

Behind these walls, Alexei Navalny - Russia's astir celebrated captive and the Kremlin's astir vocal professional - is astir to spell connected trial. Again.

Prison guards behaviour a thorough hunt of our bags. Cue the sniffer dogs.

Finally, we're fto through. We're nether strict instructions not to crook connected our video camera until permitted to bash so.

Along with the different journalists who've made the travel present to Melekhovo, we're led into a building.

We're not allowed into the hallway which has been turned into a impermanent courtroom. Neither are Mr Navalny's parents who are here, too. Instead, for now, we tin travel proceedings connected a video surface successful a abstracted room.

The signal's switched connected and the representation appears. It's a wide changeable of the makeshift courtroom. No close-ups.

But Alexei Navalny is visible, sitting astatine a array with his defence lawyers. He's intelligibly mislaid a batch of value successful prison.

But Mr Navalny is engaged and defiant arsenic helium rails against the justice and condemns the determination to effort him here.

On paper, it's a Moscow tribunal that is proceeding the case. But the proceedings is taking spot 150 miles (240km) from the Russian capital.

That suggests the Russian authorities privation to debar the publicity that transporting Mr Navalny to Moscow would inevitably bring.

The representation connected the surface doesn't past long. An hr and a fractional aft the commencement of the trial, the authoritative demands that proceedings are held down closed doors.

The justice rules successful favour. The video provender is cut.

It volition present beryllium adjacent harder to travel what's happening to Russia's astir salient absorption person successful his proceedings down bars.

Jailed successful 2021, Alexei Navalny is presently serving a nine-year situation word present for parole violations, fraud and contempt of tribunal - charges wide seen arsenic politically motivated.

But that nine-year word is acceptable to summation dramatically.

In this caller trial, helium faces aggregate charges that could adhd decades to his clip down bars. They see creating an extremist organisation and financing extremist activities.

The authorities person already declared Mr Navalny's web of run offices and his Anti-Corruption Foundation "extremist" and unopen them down.

There whitethorn beryllium worse to come. Mr Navalny says investigators told him to expect different case, different trial, this clip related to coercion charges.

Why bash the charges and trials support coming? Why bash the Russian authorities look determined to heap connected the unit and support Alexei Navalny down bars?

Over the years, Vladimir Putin's Kremlin has been engaged removing each imaginable rivals to the president - clearing the Russian governmental scenery of immoderate imaginable challengers. It volition privation to marque definite that its loudest professional stays good distant from Russia's governmental stage.

For much than a decade, Alexei Navalny has exposed corruption astatine the bosom of Russian power. His video investigations person received tens of millions of views online.

But adjacent much than this, perhaps, it is his quality to mobilise the public, particularly young Russians, to instrumentality to the streets successful anti-government protests which makes the authorities nervous.

In caller years, helium has been the lone Russian absorption person susceptible of organising anti-Putin thoroughfare protests connected a nationalist scale.

He had acceptable up a web of determination run offices, having planned to tally for president successful 2018. He was barred from the vote.

In 2020, Mr Navalny was poisoned successful Siberia by what Western laboratories aboriginal confirmed to beryllium a nervus agent.

He accused the Kremlin of trying to termination him. The Russian authorities contradict that.

After receiving urgent aesculapian attraction successful Germany, his determination to instrumentality to Russia successful 2021 volition person been viewed by those successful powerfulness present arsenic a nonstop situation to the Kremlin. He was arrested connected arrival.