In the Russian imagination, Petushki is the utopian end-of-the-line destination in the autobiographical novel by Venedikt Yerofeyev, the Soviet author who traveled by train while indulging in intoxicated monologues on history, philosophy and politics. Today, the small city northeast of Moscow provides a different kind of immersion in the absurd: the trial of three of Alexei Navalny's lawyers. The prosecution of Alexei Liptser, Igor Sergunin and Vadim Kobzev – arrested in October 2023 – began four months before the death of Vladimir Putin's most famous opponent, who mysteriously died in prison on February 16. He was serving several long sentences, including one of 19 years' imprisonment for "extremism." The defendants have now been charged with the same offense. They each face up to six years in prison.

Before being sent to a prison camp in Russia's Far North, Navalny had spent a long time imprisoned in the Vladimir region. It is in this same countryside, 125 kilometers from Moscow, that the three lawyers are now being tried in the utmost secrecy. In the middle of forests, Petushki is a small, unassuming but peaceful town of less than 15,000 inhabitants focused on their daily lives. It is the "perfect destination for an almost hidden trial," according to one of the few Russian journalists who was able to attend the start of the first hearing on September 12. At the prosecutor's request, the judge decided that the rest of the trial would be held behind closed doors. The press, like the public, had to leave the courtroom. Since then, nothing has been heard from the small regional court, a drab, decrepit two-story building surrounded by fir and birch trees, at the end of Lenin Street, just past the town's only traffic light.

"Nobody knows why the courts decided to hold the trial in Petushki. And we protested against the closed-door proceedings. We want transparent justice," said Andrei Orlov, one of the lawyers for Liptser, the youngest of the three defendants. When Le Monde spoke to him in court on Thursday, September 19, just before the third day of the trial, he was very cautious. Like his colleagues, the closed-door nature of the proceedings prevents him from publicly revealing what is said and happens in the courtroom.

Apart from Le Monde, no other media, Russian or foreign, made the trip to Petushki on that day. Even the entrance to the court's reception hall was off-limits to the press, with numerous clearly visible security forces posted around the area. Plainclothes agents also kept watch discreetly from their cars. "All this for whose safety?" someone quipped at the entrance to the courthouse.

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