She has given speeches and sung the Ukrainian anthem in her cage, and supporters in the courtroom have joined her in what might be called a rousing rendition. She has also repeatedly pointed out that the court had no right to put her on trial. In her last final statement Wednesday, she did both. “I admit no guilt and I recognize neither the court nor the verdict,” she said. “If I am found guilty, I will not appeal. I want the entire democratic world to understand that Russia is a Third World country with a totalitarian regime and a petty tyrant for a dictator and it spits on international law and human rights.” But she has also found one more, radical strategy: unless the Russian authorities begin force-feeding her or agree to release her (possibly as part of a trade), then she will deprive the Russian court of the object of its actions: by the time her sentence is read on March 21st or 22nd, she will be dead. “Russia will return me to Ukraine yet,” she said in her closing statement. “Whether I am dead or alive, it will return me.”
