Eternal Judgment

The rally on December 24 on Academician Sakharov Avenue died down, leaving different rumors - from akathists to blogger Alexei Navalny to indignation towards socialite Ksenia Sobchak, from indignation at the speeches of nationalists to bewilderment in connection with the appearance of the former Minister of Finance on the stage. An appeal was also heard at the rally by the coordinator of the Left Front, Sergei Udaltsov, who was in the hospital at that time. His wife Anastasia called on everyone to come the next day to the special detention center, from where Udaltsov was supposed to be released - earlier police officers had come to the hospital to take him to court, where another case was to be heard about Udaltsov’s alleged disobedience to the legal demands of police officers , but the doctors did not let him go. And so on December 25, Udaltsov was taken to the Nagatinsky Zaton police station, from there he was picked up by a car, apparently belonging to the Kitay-Gorod police station, and finally he was taken to the magistrate’s station of the Tverskoy court to the same indomitable judge Olga Borovkova, who, Without flinching, I soldered him a new 10 days.

The next disobedience that Udaltsov was accused of allegedly took place on October 24, when an action was supposed to take place in front of the Central Election Commission building. Udaltsov was taken away as soon as he appeared, so that he would not even have time to disobey any demand. The appearance in court in this case was initially scheduled for December 28, but then postponed to the 25th - exactly the day when Udaltsov was supposed to be released. Let us remind you that he has been in custody since December 4 and has been on a dry hunger strike almost all this time: only in the last days, when they managed to get him to be left in the hospital, did doctors begin to gradually bring him out of the hunger strike. This time, not only did no one know exactly where Udaltsov was until recently (at the special detention center those who came were told that he had been taken home from the hospital), at first lawyers were not even allowed into court. At that time, A Just Russia deputy Ilya Ponomarev was in the courthouse. Then the lawyers and Anastasia were finally allowed in, then journalists and witnesses were allowed in. They even managed to smuggle in a laptop with video footage of Udaltsov’s arrest. But for Borovkova, as usual, only the carbon-copy testimony of the police matters. She considered that they were the ones who could be trusted, but the witnesses for the defense and the video recordings could not be trusted. (To top the absurdity, local law enforcement officials said that lawyer Nikolai Polozov tore pages from the case file and gave them to Ponomarev.) As a result, Udaltsov was sentenced to another ten days of arrest. Thus, he will spend the New Year in captivity. At the end of the meeting, Udaltsov felt ill and an ambulance was called.

It should be noted that despite calls from the stage on Academician Sakharov Avenue, despite the fact that even the founder of Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky, drew attention to Udaltsov’s fate, only a few dozen people came to the courthouse to support Udaltsov - mostly those who goes to rallies or pickets in support of political prisoners that are not approved by the authorities.

Among those who came to support Udaltsov were the leader of the UCF Garry Kasparov, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Journal Alexander Ryklin, blogger Alexei Navalny, activists of the Left Front and Solidarity. When Udaltsov was taken out of the courtroom, a stampede occurred and up to twenty people were detained. According to employees of the website ovdinfo.org, everyone was later released except the representative of the Movement for the Defense of the Khimki Forest, Yaroslav Nikitenko - he was left in the Kitay-Gorod police station and placed in a temporary detention center. He is charged with the same disobedience to the legal demands of police officers.

The police guarding the court for many hours refused to allow journalists and even deputy Ponomarev into the courtroom, while refusing to introduce themselves or talk at all, turning away and hiding their faces.

On December 26 at 17.00, representatives of the public gather at the Tverskoy Court (25A Tsvetnoy Boulevard) demanding the release of Udaltsov.