Russia’s opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he is facing new accusations that could extend his current nine-year prison term.
FILE Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny looks at a camera while speaking from a prison via a video link, provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, during a court session in Petushki, Russia, Monday, Jan. 17, 2022. Navalny says that he is facing new accusations that could extend his current nine-year prison term.
Navalny said on Instagram that an investigator visited him in prison to declare that the authorities have opened a newagainst him on charges of “creating an extremist group to fan hatred against officials and oligarchs" and trying to stage unsanctioned rallies.
In March, Navalny was sentenced to nine years in prison on fraud and contempt of court charges he rejected as politically motivated, a move that signaled an attempt by the authorities to keep him behind bars for as long as possible. The new sentence followed a year-long Kremlin crackdown on Navalny’s supporters, other opposition activists and independent journalists in which authorities appear eager to stifle all dissent.
Navalny’s close associates have faced criminal charges and left the country, and his group’s political infrastructure — an anti-corruption foundation and a nationwide network of regional offices — has been destroyed after being labeled an extremist organization.