A Russian court has convicted the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny of extremism charges and sentenced him to an extra 19 years in prison.
Mr Navalny – Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic – is already serving a term of more than 11 years on a variety of charges which have widely been derided as politically motivated. His movement has been outlawed and declared “extremist”.
While a Moscow court was hearing the case on paper, a section of the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, where Mr Navalny is serving his sentences, has been the setting to hear the case involving six separate criminal charges – including inciting and financing extremist activity and creating an extremist organisation. The Melekhovo colony is about 235km (145 miles) east of Moscow.
Dressed in his dark prison uniform and flanked by his lawyers, Mr Navalny smiled at times as he listened to the judge. The audio feed from the court, where the trial has been happening behind closed doors, was so poor that it was practically impossible to make out what the judge was saying. It took the judge less than 10 minutes to announce the verdict and the sentence – something that in Russia usually takes hours and even days.
The European Union and the US were among those to condemn what they called another politically motivated ruling, calling for Mr Navalny's immediate release.
The British foreign secretary James Cleverly condemned the sentence. “His abuse shows Russia’s complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights,” Mr Cleverly said. “Dissent cannot be silenced. The UK calls for his immediate release,” he added.
The fresh sentence will come as little suprise to Mr Navalny, who, on the eve of the trial posted a message to social media via his team saying that he was expecting a “huge” extension of his prison time. “A Stalinist term” he said, referring to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. He said the purpose would be to frighten Russians, but urged them not to let that happen and to think hard about how best to resist what he called the “villains and thieves in the Kremlin”. State prosecutors had asked the court to hand him another 20 years.
Mr Navalny could yet face further charges. He has previously said that he has been told to expect another trial on terrorism charges.
One of Mr Navalny’s associates, Daniel Kholodny, stood trial alongside him after being relocated from a different prison. Mr Kholodny, 25, a TV technician who worked for the YouTube channel of Mr Navalny, was found guilty yesterday of organising an extremist group, Novaya Gazeta reported. He was sentenced to a further eight years in jail.
Mr Navalny has proven to be a significant thorn in the side of Mr Putin ever since he rose to prominence in the 2010s. In 2011, Mr Navalny founded the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which would become his team’s main platform for exposing alleged graft among Russia’s top political ranks. His reputation only grew in playing a prominent role in anti-Kremlin protests in 2011 and 2012. Demonstrations that brought tens of thousands of people out onto the streets.
Navalny in one his orginial court hearings in Moscow in 2021— (Moscow City Court)
In 2021, Russian authorities outlawed Mr Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and their vast network of offices in Russian regions, calling them extremist organisations and exposing anyone involved to possible prosecution. Mr Navalny’s allies say the charges retroactively criminalise all the foundation’s activities since its creation.
Mr Navalny, 47, has exposed official corruption with videoes he has released racking up tens of millions of views online. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from what is believed to have been nerve agent poisoning. He blamed that poisoning on the Kremlin – as did a number of Western nations. The Kremlin has denied involvement.
Authorities sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison for parole violations relating to previous cases and then to another nine years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. It isn’t immediately clear if he will serve the new sentence concurrently with those.
About 40 supporters from different Russian cities gathered outside the colony, one of them told The Associated Press in the messaging app Telegram. Yelena, who spoke on condition that her last name was withheld for safety reasons, said the supporters weren’t allowed into the colony, but decided to stay outside until the verdict was announced. “People think it’s important to be nearby at least like that, for moral support. We will be waiting,” she said.
Mr Navalny was ordered to serve the new prison term in a “special regime” penal colony, a term that refers to the Russian prisons with the highest level of security and the harshest inmate restrictions. It wasn’t immediately clear if or when he would be transferred to such a colony from the Melekhovo prison. Russian law stipulates that only men given life sentences or “especially dangerous recidivists” are sent to those types of prisons.
By law, Mr Navalny has 10 days to appeal the verdict, and if he does, it will not take effect until the appeal is adjudicated.
Mr Putin, in power since 1999, is expected to run for another six-year presidential term in 2024. With Russia waging war in Ukraine and locked into – according to the Russian president – an existential battle with the West, Mr Putin says it is vital for the country to remain united. In February, he ordered the FSB security service to raise its game to “identify and stop the illegal activities of those who are trying to divide and weaken our society”.
To coincide with the start of this latest trial, Mr Navalny and his team had announced a new mass campaign to turn Russian public opinion against Mr Putin and his invasion of Ukraine – urging Russians to “join forces in the fight against Putin’s lies and Kremlin hypocrisy”.
“We will conduct an election campaign against war. And against Putin. Just that. A long, stubborn, exhausting but fundamentally important campaign where we will turn people against the war,” he said in his launch messages. Mr Navalny argued that despite a relentless crackdown on dissent, such a campaign could be efficiently conducted on messaging apps outside the authorities’ control. Mr Navalny’s movement is banned from all political activity.
“No one but us could enter this fight for our citizens’ hearts and minds, so we need to do it and win,” Mr Navalny said.
In his closing statement last month, Mr Navalny said: “For a new, free, rich country to be born, it must have parents. Those who want it. Who expect it and who are willing to make sacrifices for its birth.”
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
