Alexei Navalny - Another Putin Political Victim

"Oh, well. Don't get bored without me. And, importantly, don't be idle ...." With that admonition, Alexei Navalny, 37 and a lawyer, one of Russia's leading opposition figures, who had just been convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison, made clear to his followers that there remains work to be done and that they should not wait for him to do it. Navalny and his supporters claimed the embezzlement case was politically driven to try to shut down the vehement Kremlin critic and intimidate his supporters. On the day, Navalny was found guilty of heading a group that embezzled 16 million rubles' ($500,000) worth of timber from state-owned company Kirovles in 2009 while he worked as an unpaid adviser to the provincial governor in Kirov, 760 kilometers (470 miles) east of Moscow. Kirovies president Vyacheslav Opalev was given a suspended sentence in December after pleading guilty to conspiring with Navalny. Navalny insists Opalev framed him out of revenge : Navalny had recommended that Opalev be fired and that officials investigate potential corruption in his company, which had incurred 200 million rubles ($6 million) in losses by the time Navalny arrived in the region. But, the judge in Navalny's trial. said he found the testimony of Opalev, the key prosecution witness to be "trustworthy and consistent." Other prosecution witnesses disagreed with the basic arguments of the indictment that claimed Navalny's work in Kirov led to the embezzlement. None of the managers at Kirovles who appeared in court, except for Opalev, was able to confirm that Navalny defrauded the company. After sentencing, Navalny handed the cell phone and his watch to his wife, Yulia, before bailiffs took custody of him and co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov, who was given a four-year sentence. "We are deeply disappointed in the convictions...and the apparent the political motivations in this trial," US Ambassador Michael McFaul said. Navalny, a 2010 Yale University fellow, first became known for his aggressive blogs about corruption in the Russian government, focusing on Vladimir Putin, and became a leader of the massive protest rallies in late 2011 after a national parliamentary election marked by allegations of widespread fraud. Before today's sentencing, Navalny's supporters had said they would rally in Moscow if he were sent to prison - which may provoke a confrontation with police, who routinely crack down on any unsanctioned rallies. Russian news reports said Navalny would be taken to a detention facility in Kirov before being sent to a prison. Navalny's wife appeared calm after seeing her husband led away in handcuffs, saying, "If someone hopes that Alexei's investigations will cease, that's wrong." The Moscow stock market, always sensitive to politically charged issues, sank at the news of the verdict, with the main MICEX index dropping 1.4 % before partly recovering. Navalny has often said he expected to be convicted, and in a final blog post before leaving Moscow for Kirov, he downplayed his personal importance to the wider opposition, telling his group to find the strength to continue, shaking off laziness. ~~~~~ Dear readers, I greatly admire Alexei Navalny's final words of encouragement : "...And, importantly, don't be idle ..." They remind me of a hymn my great grandmother used to sing : "Work for the night is coming..." She was an active evangelist and preacher who also often quoted John 9:4 - "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." Both for her were calls to Christian witness, to preach the good news, the gospel, while she had the strength to do it. But the idea that people must work if they wish to succeed as human beings - to be better than they would be without working for the great causes they believe in, and to leave the world a better place because of their work - is also widely found in political writings. The mind turns immediately to Edmund Burke. His famous admonition to be active, "...for the sole thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Or to Churchill : "I have norhing to offer but blood, sweat and tears." The great 19th century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson used a few more words : "Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. “ For me, Navalny's call to action is Emerson's. Don't hesitate to go into the rough and tumble of ideas and political goals -- don't be afraid to go into the streets, into the crowds, to test your ideas against others, to find the cause worthy of a life's dedication. Not just in Russia, but everywhere. And Burke once more has the last word : “Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair." Keep Alexei Navalny in your hearts...and do not be idle.