Blogger Alexei Navalny insulted a whole generation with his statement about the veteran of the Great Patriotic War (WWII) Ignat Artemenko. This opinion on Friday, February 5, was expressed to the REN TV channel by the co-chairman of the Central Headquarters of the Immortal Regiment Movement Elena Tsunaeva.
“This was not a specific person, if you believe his comments, but in general all people, all the generation that Ignat Sergeevich represents. The generation that fought, the generation that worked in the rear, and the generation that restored our entire Motherland after the war. And in principle, we have devoted our entire life so that we can now continue to build that democratic society for which they stand, ”Tsunaeva said.
She noted that she also feels offended, and if there was a legal opportunity, she would also sue the blogger.
According to Tsunaeva, Navalny and his supporters tried to “catch the hype” on the theme of the 75th anniversary of the Victory. She also called it “a very dastardly story.”
Earlier on the same day, Alexei Novikov, chairman of the coordinating council of the All-Russian public movement “Clubs of Historical Reconstruction of Russia”, called Navalny’s statement “a spit in the face of the entire nation and the Russian people.”
In the summer of 2020, Artemenko starred in a video and supported the vote on amendments to the Russian Constitution. In addition to him, the video starred and became the object of criticism of Navalny, including academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Leo Bokeria, actors Vasily Lanovoy, Irina Kupchenko and Ivan Okhlobystin, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, designer Artemy Lebedev.
In June, the veteran became ill with his heart after Navalny called him a lackey and a traitor, criticizing the video.
As a result, a libel case was initiated against Navalny under Part 2 of Art. 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The hearing began on February 5, 2021. The oppositionist’s lawyers were late for the meeting.
In particular, the first secretary of the French Embassy, Iuan Yures, arrived at the trial. Moscow welcomed the desire of foreign diplomats to support the WWII veteran. The day before, the Timiryazevsky court of the capital considered an administrative protocol against French citizen Cyril Danielou for participating in an unauthorized action in the Russian capital. There were only two lawyers at the trial, diplomats did not come to the courthouse. The foreigner received seven days of arrest.
The prosecutor read out the accusation to Navalny, which says that he deliberately spread information discrediting the honor and dignity of Artemenko. The blogger refused to admit his guilt.
The veteran himself demanded a public apology from Navalny for slandering him. The 94-year-old man recalled that during the Great Patriotic War he was wounded, participated in the partisan movement, while the blogger called him a traitor to the Motherland. Artemenko was very upset by this.
The veteran participated in a video link meeting, during which he became ill. An ambulance was called for him, after which a break was announced.
Navalny’s lawyers declined to comment.
In 2019, the head of Navalny’s headquarters in Volgograd published on the VKontakte page a picture in which the face of Mother Motherland was painted over with brilliant green using Photoshop, for which he was fined 200 thousand rubles. In 2020, Navalny himself already said that celebrating the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War is stupidity and nonsense, his supporters also posted photos of the Nazis on the website of the Immortal Regiment.