Watch as Russia’s top court hears Alexei Navalny’s case against the Justice Ministry on Thursday 11 January.
The outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin made his first court appearance since his transfer to a maximum-security Arctic penal colony in Russia’s far north yesterday.
Appearing via video link, he was seen cracking jokes with the judge, apparently to show that the Kremlin cannot break him, despite the decades of prison time he faces on charges decried as politically motivated by the international community.
The anti-corruption activist and lawyer has kept up an unceasing campaign against Mr Putin’s autocratic rule from behind bars and remains the president’s most prominent opponent inside Russia.
Mr Navalny drew laughter from the judge yesterday when he asked if a party had been thrown at the Melekhovo facility east of Moscow, where he had previously been held, to celebrate his departure last month.
He is suing the Russian prison authorities for mistreatment.
