Already jailed Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, who has been charged with “extremism” behind closed doors for a month in a new trial, has been asked to serve 20 years in prison, illustrating the climate of repression in Russia amid the conflict in Ukraine.
Since the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, almost all major opponents have been imprisoned or exiled. Thousands of ordinary Russians were also prosecuted, particularly for denouncing the conflict.
“Prosecutors are asking Navalny to serve a 20-year sentence in a special regime colony,” his family wrote on Telegram, saying the verdict would be announced on August 4.
“Special regime” colonies are the most well-known penal institutions in Russia and are usually for the most dangerous criminals and accomplices.
The 47-year-old anti-corruption activist, who is already serving a nine-year sentence for “fraud” in a high-security facility, faces up to 30 years in prison in this new trial, in which he is specifically accused of founding and financing an “extremist” organization.
Alexei Navalny, a pet peeve of President Vladimir Putin who is regularly sent to a correctional cell, denounces these cases as political revenge.
In his final testimony ahead of the Aug. 4 sentencing hearing, Mr. Navalny again condemned the Russian offensive in Ukraine, citing “tens of thousands dead in the most stupid and senseless war of the 21st century,” according to comments from his associates on his Telegram account.
“Sooner or later (Russia) will rise again. And it’s up to us to know what it’s going to rely on in the future,” he added, calling for relying not just on intelligence but also on “conscience.”
EU sanctions
Alexei Navalny, a longtime opponent of the Kremlin, narrowly survived a poisoning in 2020 for which he blames Russian security services on behalf of Mr Putin.
The trial of the man, who has been in prison since January 2021, is taking place behind closed doors in the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, 250 km east of Moscow.
The European Union announced on Thursday that it had imposed sanctions on the head of that penal colony and the Russian Penitentiary Service, among a list of 12 people in Russia, and on five people responsible for “grave human rights abuses”, notably through their involvement in the trials of protesters in Moscow.
Alexej Navalny made a name for himself in particular through his investigations into corruption in Vladimir Putin’s system and through the organization of large-scale demonstrations. His organisation, the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK), was shut down in 2021 for “extremism”.
Mr Navalny also says he faces a separate trial on a “terrorism” case, for which he risks a life sentence, but few details are known at this time.
Since his detention, Mr. Navalny has regularly posted messages on social media through his lawyers and staff, continuing to show fighting spirit despite particularly difficult prison conditions.
In an earlier message dated June 27, the adversary expressed his surprise when he learned of the failed rebellion of the paramilitary group Wagner several days late due to a disciplinary sanction.
Mr Navalny believed at the time that Vladimir Putin was “the greatest threat” to Russia, whose “inevitable collapse” threatened a “civil war”.
On Tuesday, he ironized his new trial, “full of compelling evidence of guilt,” by releasing a copy of an alleged prosecutor’s document that, among other things, quoted an anti-Putin message to the address of a bitcoin wallet used for a donation to his organization in 2021.
On his third birthday in prison on June 4, he pledged to remain in good spirits despite 16 stints in a disciplinary cell.