A panel of judges in the Vladimir Regional Court — Yuri Paltsev, Alexey Matskevich, and Anton Balashov — refused to increase the sentences for Alexei Navalny's lawyers, as requested by the prosecutor, reported a correspondent from 'Mediazona'**. The prosecution requested to increase the prison terms for Vadim Kobzev from 5.5 years to 5 years and 8 months, Alexey Lipcer from 5 to 5 years and 6 months, and Igor Sergunin from 3.5 to 4 years.
Prosecutor Irina Kolotilova asked the court to exclude the mitigating circumstance in the cases of Vadim Kobzev and Alexey Lipcer — 'difficult financial situation of the family'. The prosecution wants to toughen the punishment for Igor Sergunin because all the evidence was collected without Sergunin's confessions 'in conditions of obviousness'.
The appellate court also reformulated the ban on professional activity to a ban specifically on legal practice.
Additionally, their freedom restriction terms were reduced after the main term: Kobzev to 11 months, Lipcer to 10 months, Sergunin to 9 months.
During the session, lawyer Anna Stavitskaya noted that the first-instance verdict copies the indictment. 'Of course, I don't live on a cloud, and we, lawyers, know well that judges use the indictment in their work. But the results of my research amazed me. Approximately 95% of the verdict is a copy of the indictment. 234 pages. Three pages are the operative part. Of the remaining 231 pages, 215 are a copy'.
The three lawyers who at different times represented Alexei Navalny's interests — Vadim Kobzev, Alexey Lipcer, and Igor Sergunin — were arrested on October 13, 2023, in the case of participation in an 'extremist community'. Notably, Alexey Lipcer last met with Alexei Navalny in the summer of 2022.
The investigation believes that Navalny's defenders, 'using their status', regularly transmitted the oppositionist's letters from the colony to his associates. Thus, according to the investigators' logic, through the lawyers, Navalny 'continued to perform the functions of a leader and head of the extremist community'.
On January 17, 2025, the lawyers were sentenced. Vadim Kobzev was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison, Alexey Lipcer to 5 years, and Igor Sergunin to 3.5 years.
* Included in the list of 'terrorists and extremists'.
** Recognized in Russia as a 'foreign agent'.
Photo: Mediazona