Navalny’s former lawyers sentenced to prison in Russia
RTJAN 15
Russia: Alexei Navalny Lawyers Get Multi-Year Sentences
Above: (L-R) Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser, and Vadim Kobzev attend their verdicts reading in Petushki, Russia on Jan. 17, 2025. Image copyright: Tatyana Makeyeva/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images
The Spin
Anti-Russia narrative
The prosecution of these lawyers represents a deliberate strategy to isolate political prisoners and dismantle the right to legal defense in Russia, marking an unprecedented assault on the legal profession that echoes Soviet-era repression. The Kremlin's crackdown on dissent is a way to increase pressure on the opposition and discourage defense lawyers from taking political cases.
Pro-Russia narrative
The verdict is neither absurd nor politically motivated. The lawyers abused their legal status by facilitating illegal extremist activities, using their position to gain access to the correctional institution and help Navalny continue directing an extremist organization from his maximum-security prison in violation of Russian law.