A week later

The Leninsky District Court of Kirov has again begun to consider the case of theft that caused damage to the Kirovles company, of which Alexey Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov are accused. A week earlier, Judge Sergei Blinov partially granted the request of the defense, which argued that it did not have enough time to familiarize itself with the case - the defense asked to postpone the hearing for a month, Blinov allowed it for a week. On April 24, Navalny’s Kirov lawyer Vadim Kobzev filed a petition for additional time to familiarize himself with the case materials, since the defense had only four working days to do this. The judge refused, allowing the defense to get acquainted with the case during breaks in the hearing.

Next, the defense made a motion to return the case to the prosecutor's office. According to lawyers, the indictment does not indicate the amount of damage caused by the crime; different amounts of theft are indicated - 16.003 million and 16.165 million rubles; there is no reference to the defense evidence - payment documents confirming the compensated nature of the transaction in which Navalny participated; Navalny’s role as the organizer of the crime is not described (where, when and under what circumstances he violated). In addition, the defense pointed out that the prosecutor's office approved the indictment and submitted 31 volumes to the court in one day - from this, the lawyers conclude that the case was not studied by the prosecutor and was formally approved.

The prosecution responded only to part of the arguments: there is no minimum time limit for familiarization with the case, and the case contains a reference to Ofitserov’s testimony.

The judge interrupted the hearing for several hours, after which he stated that the arguments presented by the defense were not grounds for returning the case to the prosecutor's office.

The defense responded by challenging the judge. The judge, interrupting the hearing for about 50 minutes, refused to recuse himself.