Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was detained for breaking house arrest to join a protest in Moscow as President Vladimir Putin stares down opponents during the country’s worst economic crisis since 2009.
Navalny’s arrest yesterday came hours after a court handed him a suspended sentence and condemned his brother to 3 1/2 years in prison on fraud and money-laundering charges. Navalny described the verdict as an act of vengeance by the government.
“The fact that they’ve detained me means just one thing, that there will be one less person for them to arrest,” Navalny, who has led the biggest protests against Putin in his 15 years in power, said on his Twitter account after he was held. “They can’t detain all of us.”
Putin is facing dissent at home as plunging oil prices and U.S. and European sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine are driving Russia into recession. Efforts to mount a political challenge against him have so far faltered. The Russian leader is enjoying near-record approval ratings, even as the country’s worst currency crisis since 1998 undercuts incomes and ignites inflation.
The verdict against Navalny and his brother “appears to be politically motivated,” the European Union said in a statement on its website. The U.S. condemned the ruling as a “disturbing development” meant to “further punish and deter political activism.”
‘Growing Crackdown’
“This appears to be another example of the Russian government’s growing crackdown on independent voices,” U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said at a briefing in Washington.
The 38-year-old lawyer was arrested as he approached the site of the protest in Moscow’s Manezh Square, near the Kremlin. Officers dispersed the crowd of about 1,500 people at about 9 p.m. They detained at least 100, Interfax reported, citing the capital’s police.
The decision to give Navalny a suspended sentence probably sought to avoid making him a martyr and sparking major unrest, while putting pressure on him by imprisoning his brother, according to Masha Lipman, a Moscow-based political analyst and visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“With the prospect of socio-economic protests, the Kremlin doesn’t want Navalny to become more of a leader,” Lipman said by phone. “The image of a martyr, even if in jail, might give more impetus to such protests.”
Putin Opponent
Navalny, an anti-corruption activist, led protests in 2011-2012 that saw hundreds of thousands take to the streets. He continues to agitate for the Russian ruler’s overthrow, even though he’s been kept out of the public eye and under house arrest since February.
Navalny said on his Twitter account that he’d been brought home after first being taken to a police precinct with several officers stationed outside. He remains under house arrest until his sentence is confirmed, according to the court ruling.
“His brother is vulnerable in prison and that is a very hard moral dilemma for Navalny,” Lipman said. “But his conduct today indicates that he won’t bend to pressure.”
Some of the demonstrators, who gathered in freezing temperatures of minus 17 Celsius (1.4 Fahrenheit), chanted “freedom” as they were pushed away by cordons of police.
“I came because we must show there’s a certain number of people unhappy with what’s happening in the country,” said Timur Vasyunin, a 30-year-old programmer. ‘I’m disappointed there were so few people. I myself never went to these events before, but now is the time when it’s necessary.’’
Ouster Call
Navalny shouted out in the courtroom that the decision to jail his brother was “filthy.” His lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, told TV Rain that the defense considered the verdict unlawful and would appeal. The brothers were also fined 500,000 rubles ($8,700) each.
“This time they’re purposefully destroying, torturing and tormenting the relatives of people who are their political opponents,” Navalny told reporters after the verdict. “I call on everyone to go to the streets until the authorities, who are grabbing and torturing innocent people, are ousted.”
Judge Elena Korobchenko of Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court didn’t explain the difference in the sentences for Navalny and his brother, saying the legal reasoning will be given later. They were found guilty of defrauding the Russian branch of French cosmetics company Yves Rocher. Both men have denied wrongdoing.
Thwarting Protests
The verdict, originally scheduled for Jan. 15, was moved forward suddenly yesterday to just before Russia’s 11-day winter break. The authorities may have been attempting to thwart protests as many Russians will be on holiday, according to Nikolai Petrov, a scholar at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
The prosecutors, who sought a 10-year sentence for Alexey and eight years for Oleg, will probably appeal the verdict, which they consider lenient, Interfax reported. The opposition leader was handed another suspended term last year in a fraud case involving a timber company in the Kirov region.
About 18,000 signed up on the Facebook Inc. page for the Manezh Square rally. Russian authorities blocked another Facebook page earlier this month promoting a similar event on the original date of the verdict.
The Kremlin won’t comment on the verdict, RIA Novosti reported, citing Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Navalny finished second with 27 percent in Moscow mayoral elections in September 2013 and almost forced a run-off against Putin ally Sergei Sobyanin.
“The Navalny trial’s outcome is not a turning point for Russian politics,” said Alexander Kliment, an analyst at New York-based research group Eurasia. “But it is an indicator of how the Kremlin perceives its priorities and vulnerabilities ahead of a year in which economic and geopolitical stresses will become much more acute.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Anton Doroshev in Moscow at adoroshev@bloomberg.net; Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net Paul Abelsky, Michael Winfrey
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