Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny faces another sentence.
Supporters are planning another protest for Sunday, which this time is not officially banned.
Alexej Navalny is back on trial, but was combative on Friday
(see first report).
On Sunday, people all over Russia are called upon to hold up flashlights in the evening out of solidarity
(see update from February 13, 6:35 p.m.).
After mass protests with thousands of arrests, this protest is said to be safer for participants.
Update from February 13, 6:35 p.m.:
Before a new planned protest, the Russian police searched the offices of employees of the detained Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Navalny's team from the city of Chelyabinsk in the Urals published photos of the upside down rooms on Telegram on Saturday.
The police had previously searched a Moscow office.
The activists suspected a connection to their protest on Sunday.
People all over Russia are called on Valentine's Day to stand in front of their houses in the evening and hold up flashlights to express their solidarity with Navalny
(see first report)
.
After the mass protests of the past few weeks with a total of more than 11,000 arrests, the flashlight protest is said to be safer for the participants.
Unlike the unauthorized mass protests on January 23 and 31, this action is not officially prohibited.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently said that they were not interested in a "cat and mouse game" but would pursue possible violations of the law.
St. Petersburg's vice-governor also said holding up a flashlight is not illegal.
Nevertheless, according to its own statements, a Siberian television broadcaster was called on by the Roskomnadzor media supervisory authority to delete a protest announcement - otherwise the website could be blocked.
Alexei Navalny: Kremlin critic threatens further punishment - he calls on the judge to take law lessons
First report from February 12:
Moscow - Another trial against the Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny * has continued in Russia.
The opposition member, who was recently sentenced to serving a previously imposed multi-year prison sentence, appeared aggressively in the Moscow court on Friday.
At the beginning of the second hearing, his lawyers asked the judge to declare that they were biased.
The courthouse was surrounded by numerous police officers, as had been the case on other court appointments by Navalny.
Because he is said to have insulted a World War II veteran, he is now threatened with a fine or forced labor.
He himself sees the process that was opened last week as politically motivated.
Navalny, standing behind a glass wall, asked the judge to take law lessons.
"Stop embarrassing yourself and take some courses to improve your knowledge of the laws of the Russian Federation," Navalny told the judge.
Judge Akimova reprimanded Navalny several times for his behavior and finally gave him 15 minutes "to calm down".
At the first hearing, he had accused the Justice Ministry and the judge of partiality and subservience to the Kremlin.
Navalny had criticized a video broadcast in the state media last summer in which several citizens spoke out in favor of a constitutional amendment.
Critics see it as an instrument of securing power for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin *.
"Take a look at them: They are the shame of the country," wrote Navalny on Twitter in early June about the people in the clip, calling them "traitors".
Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny again in court: war veteran should serve as a "puppet"
A 94-year-old who fought in World War II is said to have been so offended by Nawalny's remarks that his health deteriorated.
That is the version of the prosecution.
Nawalny's version, however, reads: The veteran is a "puppet" in a politically motivated process.
The Kremlin opponent argues that the old man was barely able to mentally follow the judge's questions on the first day of the trial when he was connected to the video.
On this second day of the trial, the veteran no longer appeared himself at all.
Instead, the prosecutor read his biography for around 20 minutes, highlighting his meritorious achievements as a hero of World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.
That had absolutely nothing to do with the case, complained Navalny.
In his usual humorous way he tried again and again to present the court with jokes.
He also invoked the right to freedom of expression.
Several witnesses summoned on Friday all testified against Navalny.
A witness requested to Nawalny's defense, however, was initially not allowed into the room.
The opposition politician criticized that the elderly gentlemen were deliberately left to wait on the street for a long time at minus 15 degrees and snowstorms.
"Do you have a conscience? Have respect for those involved in the process," he appealed to the judge.
She warned him several times because he interfered with the negotiation with heckling and forbade him to ask questions.
Alexei Navalny: Supporters are planning the next protest for Sunday
In another trial that was heavily criticized in the West, Navalny was sentenced to serving a three-year prison term in the penal camp for allegedly violating probation conditions while he was in Germany to recover from a poison attack.
Nawalny's lawyers have now appealed the sentence.
On Thursday evening, Navalny's supporters in Moscow reported a raid on their offices.
They suspect a connection to a protest that they announced for this Sunday: People across Russia are supposed to gather in front of their houses in the evening and hold up flashlights - as a sign of solidarity with Navalny and his wife Julia.
Such a decentralized and peaceful action should make it harder for the police to take action against the activists.
Video: Hundreds of arrests during protests in Russia against the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny
The European Union is meanwhile considering further sanctions against Russia.
According to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russia is prepared for a break with the EU if it does.
"We don't want to isolate ourselves from life in the world, but we have to be prepared," Lavrov said in an excerpt from a program by journalist Vladimir Solovyov, an influential voice in Kremlin propaganda, published on Friday.
"If you want peace - prepare for war," Lavrov added.
A little later, the Kremlin criticized Lavrov's words had been shortened by some media.
It was "a big mistake" to publish these statements without context, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
“The point is, we don't want that.
We want to develop relations with the European Union, but if the European Union goes this way, then yes, then we are ready, ”said Peskow.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in Berlin called Lavrov's statement "strange".
Should Europe again impose sanctions "that pose a risk to our economy (...), then yes," the Russian Foreign Minister replied to Solovyov's question as to whether one was heading towards a break with Brussels.
(dpa / AF / cibo) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen digital network.