Kremlin Defender Sergey Markov Discusses Navalny Sentence

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, can I ask you for your immediate reaction? Is this making Navalny a martyr? Is this really what Putin wants?

SERGEY MARKOV, FORMER RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: No, it’s not what Putin wants, but you don’t want Navalny to stay in prison, and during a few years, Kremlin protected Alexei Navalny from going to jail. And I say Navalny has very unusual, two conditional arrests, which no one, another Russian citizen has. But after the sharp attack against Vladimir Putin started as a decision was, OK, law just law for Alexei Navalny, and also a demand from our Russian society. This was also taken account that Vladimir Putin doesn’t differentiate Alexei Navalny, because, for him, Alexei Navalny not independent Russian politician, but just political agent of a big Western coalition. Vladimir Putin…

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: OK.

MARKOV: … Neo from “Matrix” movie. And he has a real conflict with Matrix. Alexei Navalny just one of the universe’s Mr. Smith which had been created by Matrix and who is attacking now Putin.

AMANPOUR: OK, so that is a really quite an interesting film that you are portraying for us, using all the Hollywood terms. But the fact of the matter is — and we will take each in turn — first, I want to ask you, Sergey Markov, does it not sound ridiculous that he was condemned for violating the terms of his parole when he was lying in a deathly coma? I mean, that is absurd on its very face. That goes back to Soviet era absurdity, doesn’t it?

MARKOV: It will be absurdity if it will be true. But it’s not the fact. Alexei Navalny left hospital in the middle of September. Then he had October, November, December and part of January to show up. But he never used this more than 100 days to show up.

AMANPOUR: OK.

MARKOV: So, also, Alexei Navalny violated these rules even before this incident of his poisoning. I believe that he also had been poisoning, but, of course, not by order of Russian authorities, because Russian authorities has politics to kill political opponents, no such politics.