Letters: The World Is Watching: A Russian Blogger’s Trial

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Readers of Bill Keller's April 22 column, "A Blogger on Trial," have to be outraged, particularly those of us who endured the tactics of the K.G.B. when Vladimir V. Putin was one of its hired guns. I was the CBS News correspondent in Moscow from 1972 to 1974. Just as Mr. Keller points out, the arrest and trial of Aleksei Navalny smell of a done deal, or so we old hands would assume.

The Kremlin will no doubt expect its handpicked federal Investigative Committee to provide unfounded evidence that Mr. Navalny's crusade against corruption at the highest levels of the Russian government is false and supported by Western stooges. That's the kind of knee-jerk reaction President Putin levels at any criticism of him or his cronies.

He will no doubt claim that the investigative work of Mr. Navalny, a lawyer, is that of scoundrels. As my wife of 52 years, a wise observer of character during our Moscow days, later reminded me, Mr. Putin, having manipulated his way into power, bears a chilling resemblance to a sinister figure of czarist days: Rasputin.

MURRAY FROMSON
Los Angeles, April 23, 2013

The writer is professor emeritus at the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California.

To the Editor:

I read with great interest and a touch of pride statements by Vladimir Markin, the Russian Investigative Committee spokesman, that Yale University somehow fomented the antigovernment activities of Aleksei Navalny, an internationally admired champion of transparency and the rule of law.

Mr. Navalny spent the fall of 2010 in New Haven as a Yale World Fellow, a program intended to cultivate and inspire a network of globally engaged leaders committed to positive change. At Yale, Mr. Navalny was enriched through spirited debate with World Fellows colleagues, faculty and students, which provided a global perspective from which he grew to appreciate the devastating effects of corruption on society.

We at the World Fellows Program are unabashedly inspired, but not surprised, by Mr. Navalny's rapid ascent to political relevance after returning to Russia. Although the program claims no credit for his achievements, the 238 Yale World Fellows representing 81 countries applaud his courage and selfless dedication to democratic reform.

MICHAEL CAPPELLO
Director, Yale World Fellows Program
New Haven, April 22, 2013

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