The ‘Bolotnaya case’ defendants in their glass box at the trial in Moscow. Photograph: Ivan Sekretarev/AP
Twelve activists accused of clashing with riot police during a violent rally against Vladimir Putin‘s rule appeared in a Moscow court on Thursday, in a case dubbed a political show trial by Kremlin critics.
The “Bolotnaya case”, which takes its name from the square in central Moscow where the clashes took place, has drawn stinging criticism from local rights groups, which accuse Putin of crushing dissent since returning for a third term as president.
Russian officials have used the Bolotnaya rally, at which more than 400 activists were detained on 6 May last year on the eve of Putin’s inauguration, to paint the opposition as a destructive force incapable of presenting a constructive platform to challenge Putin and the Kremlin-backed United Russia party.
“The case is fabricated from beginning to end,” said Ilya Yashin, a protest leader with the Solidarity movement. “We are witnessing a campaign of political repression not seen since Soviet times.”
On Thursday, the first day of preliminary hearings into the Bolotnaya violence, Judge Natalya Nikishina refused to return the case to prosecutors and turned down a defendant’s request for a new judge. She also agreed to a prosecution plea that the defendants remain in custody or under travel restrictions for a further six months.
Ten of the 12 activists — aged 19 – 51 — addressed the judge from a glass box referred to as “the aquarium”. Two others, neither of whom is in pre-trial detention, sat on benches.
The activists face up to eight years in prison if convicted on charges of causing “mass disorder, physically assaulting police officers and disobeying police instructions”. At least a dozen more face similar punishment as part of a separate inquiry, and two others confessed and have been jailed.
According to investigators, dozens of police officers were injured in Bolotnaya Square after protesters hurled lumps of asphalt in their direction and charged at them with flagpoles. Protesters say police provoked the violence by forcing a bottleneck on the square.
Valery Borshchyov, a veteran rights campaigner with the Moscow Helsinki Group, said the case reflected the manner in which the Kremlin was pressuring Russian civil society groups.
“Asphalt was thrown at the 6 May rally, but not by those who are standing trial. They’re not guilty,” Borshchyov said, adding that he expected the trial to drag on for months. In a statement, the Memorial rights group called the trial politically driven.
The rally, attended by tens of thousands of disgruntled Muscovites, followed a series of peaceful protests prompted by allegations of electoral fraud at the December 2011 parliamentary elections, won by United Russia – a party unequivocally loyal to Putin.
Putin’s only comment on the Bolotnaya case has been to say that violence against police is unacceptable. Senior URP lawmakers have said the clashes were financed from abroad as “a provocation,” citing a dubious documentary broadcast on state TV that claimed to show opposition leaders and a Georgian politician plotting the clashes.
Given a spate of stringent legislation signed into law since the start of Putin’s third term, few protest leaders are optimistic about the outcome of the trial. They are planning to march to Bolotnaya Square on 12 June in honour of the accused activists.
“If our courts were independent, the case would be thrown out,” said Yashin, who picketed the courton Thursday. “But since all political trials are directed by the Kremlin, there will be a guilty verdict. This case was initiated by Putin, and he will decide its outcome.”