Conviction turns Navalny into nationwide political figure – analyst

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst and head of the Efficient Politics Foundation, considers opposition activist Alexei Navalny’s conviction a mistake and believes this will only cause his popularity to grow.

“Navalny made a lot of mistakes in the past. But in the past month, during the trial, Navalny has behaved very correctly, politically speaking. This strengthens, increases and enlarges his scale as a policymaker. Now Navalny will transform from an Internet figure into a nationwide political figure,” Pavlovsky told Interfax on Thursday.

“The reaction to Navalny’s conviction may be stronger than a reaction to Navalny’s activities. The authorities are enlarging Navalny’s political biography, and this is already irreversible,” he said.

Pavlovsky called Navalny’s conviction “one of the authorities’ worst decisions this year,” which will become “an event with far-reaching consequences.”

“Mayoral elections in Moscow without Navalny are not elections at all. The elections have been arranged from the very start in such a way that the key candidates would not be able to run in them. Now the elections will simply turn into a prolongation of (acting Moscow Mayor) Sergei Sobyanin’s mandate,” he said.

Meanwhile, Leonid Polyakov, a member of the presidential Human Rights Council and head of the general political science department at the Higher School of Economics, told Interfax he did not see politics in Navalny’s case.

“It seems to me Judge Blinov in his decision proceeded solely from the circumstances of the case and from his understanding of the prosecution’s and the defense’s arguments,” Polyakov told Interfax on Thursday.

The witnesses’ testimony “truly convinced the judge that there was some collusion,” he said.

“I do not see any political motives here,” Polyakov said.

A Kirov court earlier found Navalny guilty of embezzlement of property belonging to the state-run timber company Kirovles and sentenced him to five years in prison. His co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov received a four-year prison sentence.