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Reuters
Reuters
Politics

U.S. condemns Russia's 'sham trial' of Navalny, says Kremlin trying to hide Ukraine war

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, accused of fraud and contempt of court, his lawyers Olga Mikhailova and Vadim Kobzev are seen on a screen via a video link during a court hearing at the IK-2 corrective penal colony in the town of Pokrov in Vladimir Region, Russia March 22, 2022. Navalny is already serving a two-and-a-half year sentence at a prison camp east of Moscow for parole violations. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday that it "strongly condemns" what it called Russia's "orchestration of a sham trial" against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after a court found him guilty of large-scale fraud and contempt of court, a move likely to extend Navalny's jail time by years.

Sate Department spokesperson Ned Price said the "disturbing" decision was another example of a widening crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression that he said Russia was carrying out to hide its war in Ukraine.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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