On Wednesday, the Kirov court adjourned the hearings in the criminal case against well-known oppositionist Alexei Navalny and former director of the Vyatka forest limited liability company Pyotr Ofitserov, who are accused of massive embezzlement of property in the Kirovles enterprise. Navalny denied the accusation against him and named the trial purely political. Meanwhile, a large number of politicians, human rights activists and reporters arrived in Kirov. At the same time protest actions are expected in Moscow.
On Wednesday, a rally in support of the defendants in the Bolotnaya criminal case and blogger Alexei Navalny will be held on the Novopushkinsky Square in the Russian capital. The rally is timed to the beginning of the trial against the oppositionist, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily reported. On Thursday, a protest action will be held in Kirov, where a large number of the supporters of the opposition politician arrived by the evening train from Moscow on Tuesday. On Tuesday, the appeal “All go to Kirov!” was distributed in the social networks and the blogs.
The access to the court session over the criminal case against Alexei Navalny formally will be free for all people. But there is a nuance in the trial. During the court session people cannot stand in the courtroom, except for the cases, when the judge orders people to stand up. If someone lacks a chair, he should leave the courtroom. Meanwhile, the number of journalists only from Moscow was substantial in Kirov.
Meanwhile, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported that writer Boris Akunin offered the way to support Navalny. The writer posted a photo in the blog, on which he and his wife are carrying a handwritten poster, “Alexei, Yulia, we are together with you”. On Tuesday, Navalny’s supporters set up a headquarters in Kirov that is a makeshift office and a press centre for the lawyers, journalists and activists. The headquarters is situated about a kilometer away from the court building, The premises for the headquarters is rented for two months, Rospil activist Georgy Alburov said. The team of the oppositionists is obviously getting ready for the trial in Kirov not to be quick. On Tuesday, Navalny’s supporters were arriving in Vyatka, as they want to voice their support to him.
Imprisoned as a blogger and coming out of prison a future Russian president, writer Viktor Shenderovich said about Alexei Navalny, the Vedomosti daily reported. Navalny was arrested for 15 days during a protest rally for the fair elections in December 2011.
Probably Navalny will not be elected Russian president, but he already became a real politician, the newspaper believes. He told the Vedomosti daily that he registered a non-profit organization – the Fund for the Struggle against Corruption and launched a fund-raising campaign. Navalny noted that he needs 300,000 dollars annually. The experience of his project Rospil showed that Navalny can raise even a larger sum, as supporting people from different funds had already donated approximately the same sum just for his fair name.
Navalny does not intend to receive anonymous donations this time. “People come regularly and offer the money. I say to them: let’s name yourself in public and give the money to me. All of them are afraid of this. Now there is some number of brave people, who are ready to state that they give money to me. They donate different sums of money. From 10,000 to 100,000 dollars,” Navalny said.
He intends to bring together all his projects in a new fund. Rospil (the exposure of misappropriation in the state purchases), Rosyama (the complaints of people about bad roads) and Rosvybory (the monitoring organization for the elections) will become branches of the fund with separate subaccounts. “If you are interested in a concrete investigation and you believe that we are conducting it efficiently, and you are ready to give money for this, you are welcome,” he noted.
The Vedomosti daily learnt the names of two sponsors, who had already taken a risk to support Navalny’s fund. This is son of the Vimpelcom founder, businessman Boris Zimin (he confirmed that he had already given 300,000 rubles and will continue to give approximately the same sum each month) and former manager of Alfa Group Vladimir Ashurkov (he confirmed that he gave 300,000 rubles).
Thus, the Navalny political project receives permanent legal funding, the newspaper said in conclusion.