Russia’s leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to nine more years in prison for fraud and contempt of court, in a case his supporters say was brought against him on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.
The new verdict comes as Russian authorities seek to quash any opposition to Mr Putin’s war on Ukraine, which has stalled amid fierce Ukrainian opposition. According to OVD-Info, an independent organization that monitors arrests during protests, Russian authorities have arrested more than 15,000 people at anti-war rallies since the invasion began on February 24. They also passed a law earlier this month that carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison for anyone who criticizes the Russian army or calls its offensive an invasion or a war.
Mr Navalny, who has been behind bars calling on his supporters to protest the war, was already serving a sentence that began in February last year for violating probation linked to a previous fraud conviction he and his supporters say they shared was politically motivated.
A judge ruled Tuesday that Mr Navalny had stolen donations from the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a nonprofit he founded that worked to investigate official corruption in Russia before it was banned last year as an “extremist” organization, according to a video stream from a courtroom in his penal colony 85 miles east of Moscow. According to prosecutors, Mr. Navalny stole about 350 million rubles, about $3.4 million, from the foundation. The opposition politician denied the allegations.
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Russian security forces arrested Mr Navalny on his return to Russia in January 2021 after he spent five months recovering in Germany from a poisoning attack that German scientists said he used Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. Mr Navalny accused Mr Putin of ordering the attack, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. The Kremlin also denies targeting Mr Navalny for his criticism of Mr Putin.
“There is no doubt that the decision to arrest Navalny was made by Putin personally,” said Mr Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, from Vilnius, Lithuania, where many of his associates are now based. “First he tried to kill Alexei, and when he failed, he decided to keep him in prison forever.”
Mr Navalny, 45, was also fined 1.2 million rubles on Tuesday.
The U.S. State Department called the conviction “another example of the Russian government’s increasing crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression, designed to hide the Kremlin’s brutal — and unprovoked — war on Ukraine.”
Putin’s most prominent critic, who appeared gaunt in court in his high-security prison, was typically defiant after the verdict.
In June 2021, after a summit with President Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters that jailed dissident Alexei Navalny had broken the law and would answer for his actions. Biden said he told Putin that if Navalny dies in custody, the consequences “will be devastating for Russia.” Photo: Getty Images; Press pool
“9 years. Well, as the characters of my favorite TV series The Wire used to say, ‘You only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you come out,'” his Twitter posted account managed by his team, in a reference to the popular HBO series Mr. Navalny frequently forwards messages for his social media accounts through his legal team.
Mr Navalny also urged his supporters to continue taking action “against the fraudulent and thieving Putin regime”. Any opposition to these war criminals.”
Anti-war rallies, which gathered thousands of Russians in dozens of cities earlier this month, have declined in recent days as many Russians leave the country as sanctions begin and authorities launch a pressure campaign.
Since Putin launched his invasion of neighboring Ukraine, about two dozen independent Russian media organizations have been forced to shut down or decided to shut down, while Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been blocked in the country. Investigators launched the first three criminal cases against Russians for criticizing the war last week.
State-backed polls show that around two-thirds of Russians support the campaign. A poll by independent pollster Levada Center earlier this month followed those findings. Experts warn against taking indicators of Putin’s support at face value, but say Russians are broadly backing him.
Mr Navalny’s trial, which began on February 16, was marred by tensions in Ukraine and the subsequent invasion. All hearings took place in his prison, which Mr Navalny’s supporters say was intended to keep his case out of the limelight.
– William Mauldin contributed to this article.
write to Evan Gershkovich at [email protected]
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