Quote Originally Posted by Basil77 View Post
First, when saying that Yves Rocher have no complaint against Navalny his lawyers show INTERNAL(!) letter from one of Yves Rocher managers to CEO that Navalny didn't do anything bad, besides the case is bad for reputation and so let's say that we have no complaints. CEO said that the case is valid. And to the question if he guilty or not... I knew people who got prison sentences for far less then that:
But if the alleged victim doesn't have a complaint, then why prosecute?

Even if they decide they don't want the negative publicity - that's their call.

Le Monde writes about this here Comment le procès d'Alexeï Navalny est devenu « l'affaire Yves Rocher »
in a fairly unbiased way, I think.

Apparently the prosecution comes after Yves Rocher asked some Russian official about getting out of a disadvantageous contract, if I understood correctly. Russia is Yves Rocher's second largest market after France. The case was looked into and the alleged corruption was discovered. But Yves Rocher didn't sue Navalny or report them to anticorruption watchdogs, or anything.

It looks like Navalny probably did behave a bit dishonestly, but nobody even sued him for it or complained about it. So why prosecute?

Or am I missing something here?

This looks like abuse of the justice system to punish somebody who is politically inconvenient. I don't like it, and frankly I don't see why Putin with his 80% approval ratings would resort to something as shady as that.

I don't normally by into the criticisms of Russia in Western press, and it's obvious to me that most Russians don't even care about having Western democracy anyway. They'd rather have stability and economic growth. Fine!

But this time it looks like they are on to something. Who cares if Navalny overcharged a company that doesn't care about having been overcharged?

If the powers to be in Moscow wants to stop Navalnys activism they ought to be open about it, not whip up something like this. It undermines peoples faith in the justice system too, and it's petty. It gives Russia a bad reputation abroad.

If I understood the facts in this correctly then I disagree with the actions of the Russian state in this.

Some Russian in Luxembourg has started a petition against Yves Rocher about this. Part of the petition says:

On 4 December 2012, Bruno Leproux, general director of Yves Rocher Vostok, requested that the Investigative Committee of Russia look into the possible losses that Yves Rocher may have incurred in 2008-2012 as a result of its partnership with the firm Glavpodpiska. One of Glavpodpiska's shareholders was Alexey Navalny, who by 2012 had become the leader of the Russian opposition and was under constant pressure from the Russian authorities.

This request provided a formal pretext to start a criminal case against Alexey Navalny. Despite the legal prosecution, Navalny did not end his political activity and was then placed under house arrest. It has now been six months since he was barred from using the Internet, talking with anyone apart from close relatives, or making any comments to the press.
An internal investigation carried out by Yves Rocher Vostok showed that the accusations were groundless and that no financial damage was inflicted. Nevertheless, Yves Rocher is taking an extremely passive position in court: it has not demanded that justice be restored and it has not filed a request to drop the case due to lack of grounds. With its inaction, Yves Rocher is allowing a political process to develop which will let Vladimir Putin dispose of his main and most principled opponent - Alexey Navalny.
Seems very odd to say that "Putin's main opponent" is a blogger.