MOSCOW – A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced top opposition leader Alexei Navalny to fraud and contempt of court, sentenced him to nine years in prison in a move that was seen as an attempt to keep President Vladimir Putin’s biggest enemy behind bars for so long . as possible.
The new sentence follows a year-long setback by Putin against Navalny’s supporters, other opposition activists and independent journalists, in which the authorities seem to be disturbing all dissent.
Navalny’s close associates faced criminal charges and left the country, and his group’s political infrastructure – an anti-corruption foundation and a national network of regional offices – was destroyed after being labeled an extremist organization.
The 45-year-old Navalny, who survived a poisoning with a nerve agent he blamed on the Kremlin in 2020, has already served 2 1/2 years in a penal colony east of Moscow due to a parole violation. The new trial was held in a makeshift courtroom at the facility.
In a Facebook post by his team shortly after the sentence, the normally sardonic Navalny said: “My space flight is taking a little longer than expected.”
He added that neither he nor his comrades “simply wait,” announcing that his anti-corruption foundation will become an international organization that “fights (Putin) until we win.”
“We will find all their villas in Monaco, their villas in Miami, their wealth everywhere – and if we do, we will take everything from the criminal Russian elite,” the foundation’s new website said.
His new conviction is based on allegations of embezzlement of money he and his foundation have amassed over the years and for insulting a judge during an earlier trial. Navalny, who is appealing the verdict, rejected the accusation as politically motivated.
Germany condemns the ruling, calling its foreign ministry “part of a systematic instrumentalisation of Russia’s judicial system against dissidents and political opposition.”
It was not immediately clear whether, in addition to the 2 1/2 years, he would have to serve the new nine years in prison, or where he would serve it. The prosecutor originally asked for 13 years in prison. The judge also imposed a fine of 1.2 million rubles (about 11,500 dollars).
Navalny’s Twitter account responded to the nine-year sentence by quoting “The Wire” TV series: “Well, as the characters of my favorite TV series’ The Wire ‘put it,’ you only do two days. That’s the day you go. and the day you come out. ‘ I even wore a T-shirt with this slogan, but the prison authorities confiscated it if you consider the print extremist.
His lawyers, Olga Mikhailova and Vadim Kobzev, were also arrested shortly after commenting on the verdict, although Mikhailova told the Medizona News Outlet that the police had released her without charge.
Navalny’s supporters criticize the decision to move the trial, which began about a month ago, to a prison instead of holding it in Moscow. They said it effectively limited access to procedures for the media and supporters.
He appeared at hearings and jail time and gave several balanced speeches, calling the charges false.
Navalny fell ill during a domestic flight in 2020 and was diagnosed with a chemical nerve agent Novichok, although Russian officials vehemently denied his accusation that they had a role. He was transferred to Germany for treatment, where he recovered for five months.
He was arrested after returning to Russia in January 2021, sparking the biggest protests seen in the country in recent years. The following month, a Moscow court ordered him to go to prison for violating the terms of his parole on a 2014 indictment, which the European Court of Human Rights considered “arbitrary and manifestly incomprehensible”.
The authorities then fired the superfluous force on his organization, staff and supporters. Last month, Russian officials added him and a number of his colleagues to a state registry that referred to them as extremists and terrorists.
Several criminal cases have been launched individually against Navalny, which has led his staff to suggest that the Kremlin intends to keep him indefinitely behind bars.
Navalny’s closest ally and longtime strategist Leonid Volkov tweeted from abroad on Tuesday that the plan would fall through. “Putin plans and has planned many things: to make Russia one of the top five world economies, to take over Kyiv in 96 hours, to kill Navalny with Novichok. His plans have always failed. So will these nine years,” Volkov said. .
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