The irony detector just exploded
The United States strongly condemns Russia’s conviction of opposition leader Aleksey Navalny on politically motivated charges. The Kremlin cannot silence the truth. Navalny should be released.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 4, 2023
No, really
(AP) A Russian court convicted imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny on charges of extremism and sentenced him to 19 years in prison on Friday. Navalny is already serving a nine-year term on a variety of charges that he says were politically motivated.
The new charges are related to the activities of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. It was his fifth criminal conviction and his third and longest prison term — all of which his supporters see as a deliberate Kremlin strategy to silence its most ardent opponent. (snip)
It took the judge less than 10 minutes to announce the verdict and the sentence — something that in Russia usually takes hours and even days. The hearing was broadcast to reporters in a separate room, but the judge’s speech was barely audible.
Navalny commented on the sentence in a social media post, presumably relayed through his team, saying that “the number doesn’t matter.”
“I understand perfectly that, as many political prisoners, I’m serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime,” Navalny said, urging his supporters “not to lose the will to resist” in the wake of his sentence.
I wonder how Democrats will respond when Biden is out of office and a Republican prosecutor, or a DOJ run by a Republican president, comes after him? I really would like them to not go after Biden, no matter how shady and criminal he’s been, but, Democrats have set the stage.
