Navalny prosecution story contains many questions - Limonov
MOSCOW. July 31 (Interfax) - By bringing charges against blogger and RosPil project author Alexei Navalny the authorities want to intimidate, not actually prosecute him, said opposition activist and author Eduard Limonov.
"It is a not classic story of a poor persecuted protestant. It is some trickier story of a struggle between one branch of power and another," Limonov told Interfax on Tuesday.
There is a group among the structures of power, which supports Navalny, and was instrumental, in particular, in bringing Navalny to the board of directors at Aeroflot, in which the state is the main shareholder, he said.
"Until recently, we had not had an opposition activist who would simultaneously be in opposition and invited to work for a state company," Limonov said.
So, Navalny is a "shady character," he said.
"When Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov went into opposition, the Nashi (a pro-Kremlin group) threw rakes under his car wheels. But no one does that to Navalny," the opposition activist said.
"I have been watching the fight between two state clans. Someone is keeping [Navalny]. It could be a clan with small opportunities, but it is there," Limonov said.
"I think, at this stage what some forces want to do is not harass Navalny but scare him good and proper. But other forces are on his side," Limonov said.
On Tuesday, opposition activist Navalny was charged with masterminding the embezzlement at the Kirovles company, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax.