Locked in a glass box in a Moscow courtroom, Alexei Navalny denounced the judge, mocked a prison official, and discussed with the prosecutor.
Then, at the end of a long day in court, President Vladimir Putin’s harshest critic showed his softer side, smiling at his wife Yulia and drawing a heart on the glass of his cage.
Since his arrest in mid-January after returning from Germany, where he was treated for poisoning, Navalny has turned a series of hearings in Russia’s mostly colorless courtrooms into headlines in political theater.
Alternately defiant, mocking and affectionate, the 44-year-old trained attorney has used the court’s actions to build his support, infuriate his opponents and create an image of Russia’s foremost political prisoner.
Navalny turned his February 2 hearing – when a judge ordered him to nearly three years in prison on old fraud charges – into a blistering attack on Putin.
Mocking the Russian leader over allegations that the Novichok nerve agent he used to poison him was stuffed in his underwear, Navalny told the court Putin would “go down in history as a poisoner of underpants.”
He discussed with officials and prosecutors in court and derided their claims that he should have appeared for conditional appointments by pointing out that he was in a coma.
Making heart signs for his wife, shortly before Judge Natalya Repnikova read the sentence, was spread in newspapers around the world.
Much of what Navalny does in court has been carefully calculated, said Moscow-based political observer Konstantin Kalachev, comparing his Feb. 2 speech to that of a revolutionary in Tsarist Russia.
“He’s working on his image,” said the head of the political expert group.
– ‘Political prostitutes’ –
But some of Navalny’s outbursts in court are clearly impulsive, Kalachev added.
“We are all human, and sometimes he gets carried away with his emotions,” he said.
Days after she was jailed, Navalny was again charged with defamation of a World War II veteran who was part of a group of Russians in a pro-Kremlin video that described Navalny as “traitors.”
He again stole the show, mocked the judge and clashed with relatives of the veteran, whose family he accused of “political prostitutes” and the use of the 94-year-old.
Judge Vera Akimova at one point threatened to remove Navalny from the courtroom and the hearing was adjourned when the veteran said he was feeling unwell and an ambulance was called.
Navalny was back in court on Friday for the next hearing in the defamation case and showed no sign of restraint as he berated the judge.
“Stop embarrassing yourself and enroll in courses to improve your knowledge of the laws of the Russian Federation,” said Navalny, backing a request from his lawyer to replace the judge.
If the February 2 hearing was a political drama, the defamation trial has turned into a comedy, political analyst Anton Orekh said.
But the performances are also Navalny’s only chance to continue his fight against the authorities.
“If you don’t have the chance to take polls and speak in parliament, if you don’t have the chance to take to the streets peacefully and express your feelings and thoughts, if you’ve been denied access to state television channels, all that’s left is a tribune in the courtroom, ‘Orekh wrote on his blog.
Ever since Navalny emerged as the Kremlin’s top critic ten years ago, he has been in stark contrast to Putin, portraying the 68-year-old as an outsider.
In the age of social media, Navalny’s theatrical courtrooms mostly appeal to young Russians, Kalachev said.
“Putin is losing support among young people, polls show,” he said. “To young people he is like an alien, a man of the moon.”
Navalny “speaks the same language as young people, they can see themselves in him,” Kalachev added. “His clothes, his taste, his wife, his family … he represents the urban middle class.”
tbm-pop-als / mm / ach