Russia's anti-corruption crusader hopes to take his case to the Constitutional Court

Alexey Navalny, an opposition activist and the head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, has filed a complaint with Russia's Constitutional Court in connection with lower courts' refusal to hear his claim against Attorney General Yuri Chaika, whom Navalny wishes to sue for defamation.

In his appeal to the Constitutional Court, Navalny is asking the judges to declare it unconstitutional for courts to cite a provision in Russia's Civil Procedure Code to justify rejecting his defamation lawsuit. (Lower courts have claimed the law allows them to refuse to hear defamation suits, if the disputed acts “do not affect the plaintiff's rights, freedoms, or legal interests.”)

The last time I looked at the Constitution, I didn't see any article that read, “On certain restrictions applying to Alexey Navalny, born in 1976.” So, in theory, I've still got my right to defend my own interests in court (which exists at least in theory, even if I'm guaranteed to lose). Let [the judges] decide.

Alexey Navalny

• On December 1, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation published a large report about alleged illicit actions by Russian Attorney General Yuri Chaika's family. According to the report, the attorney general's son, Artem, reportedly owns a home in Switzerland and a villa in Greece. The activists also accuse Chaika's son of illegally seizing a shipping company in Irkutsk.
• Attorney General Chaika later accused Navalny of working for the billionaire Putin-critic William Browder and Western intelligence agencies.