Watchdog

The wife of jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has demanded to be allowed to be present at her husband's "illegal and shameful" trial inside the penal colony where the outspoken Kremlin critic is being held.

Yulia Navalnaya slammed the Russian authorities in a post on Instagram on February 14, saying the case against him was "so pathetic they are afraid to hold the trial in Moscow."

"This is an illegal and shameful mock trial and the way it has been organized proves that my husband is an honest man. And they hold him in prison because he is not afraid of these authorities," Navalnaya wrote, adding that the trial was also purposely scheduled to disrupt a planned quarterly visit she is allowed with her husband.

Last week, Moscow's Lefortovo district court said its judges will travel to Correctional Colony No. 2 in the Vladimir region to try Navalny there on February 15 on charges of embezzlement from his now defunct and banned Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and for contempt of a Moscow court.

Navalny's lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, said her client could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty, adding that the decision to try Navalny inside the penal colony will "seriously affect" his right to defend himself in court.

"The colony is a restricted area and it is absolutely banned to bring in telephones, computers, and other gadgets. Therefore, I do not understand how the trial will proceed," Mikhailova said.

Navalny has been accused of appropriating more than $4.7 million of donations that were given to his organizations for his own personal use. He also faces up to six months in prison for a contempt-of court-charge brought about during one of his hearings last year.

Navalny has rejected the charges, calling them politically motivated.

The opposition politician was arrested in January last year upon his return from Germany, where he was recovering from a poison attack that almost killed him.

Within weeks he was handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole in a conviction is widely regarded as trumped-up and politically motivated.

Navalny has blamed Putin for his poisoning with a Novichok-style chemical substance. The Kremlin has denied any role in the poisoning, which along with his arrest sparked widespread condemnation and sanctions from the West.

The Hungarian government on February 13 denied that Prime Minister Viktor Orban had floated the possibility of withdrawing from the European Union during a campaign rally the previous day.

Orban’s spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, posted on Twitter that Germany’s dpa news agency “got it wrong.”

“PM Orban didn’t hint at leaving EU,” Kovacs wrote. “On the contrary, he said: ‘We, for our part, want to keep the EU together…. The EU only has a future if we can stay together.”

Dpa's story covering a speech by Orban on February 12 was headlined: Orban Hints At Possibility Of Hungary Leaving EU.

Speaking in an annual address that this year marked the start of his campaign for Hungary's parliamentary elections on April 3, Orban said the EU is waging "a holy war, a jihad" against Hungary under the slogan of the rule of law.

Orban told his supporters in Budapest that the EU should show "tolerance" toward Hungar.

Orban also warned of a possible flood of refugees from neighboring Ukraine if Russia launches a military invasion there.

“The Russia-Ukraine conflict is urgent,” he said. “Hungary’s interest: War must be avoided first and foremost.”

However, he also spoke against the EU’s plans to impose harsh sanctions on Moscow if it attacks Ukraine.

“Sanctions, punitive policies, lecturing, or any other kind of arrogance on the part of the great powers are out of the question,” said Orban, who has perhaps the closest relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin of any EU leader.

Since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, Orban has consistently opposed EU sanctions against Moscow, although in the end Hungary has voted to support them.

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Hungary's 'Unexpected Candidate' Could Be A Political Threat To The Populist Orban

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Orban spoke just a few days before the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) is due to rule on a new mechanism that would link the allocation of EU funds to respect for the rule of law in member countries.

Hungary and Poland had filed a complaint against the mechanism adopted in December 2020 that would see countries that violate rule-of-law principles cut off from funds from the common EU budget. The ECJ is due to deliver its ruling on February 16.

EU bodies and human rights organizations accuse Orban, who has ruled Hungary since 2010, of assaulting democracy and the rule of law.

Orban railed against the accusations, saying, "For them, the rule of law is a means by which they want to knead us into something that resembles them."

However, Orban said, Hungary wanted to keep the EU together "despite growing cultural alienation."

That is why Budapest has made "offers of tolerance" to Brussels on several occasions, he said.

"There is no other solution, only tolerance. This is the only way we can find a common path," Orban continued.

Some 80 percent of Hungarians are in favor of their country's membership in the 27-nation bloc.

Orban for the first time faces a united opposition in the upcoming elections, and opinion polls predict a close race.

With reporting by AP and dpa