Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Sentenced to Nine More Years in Prison
Russia’s leading opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, was sentenced to nine more years in prison on charges of fraud and contempt of court, in a case his supporters say was brought against him on the orders of President
The antigraft campaigner, who has been a thorn in the Kremlin’s side for the past decade, was already serving a 3½ year sentence. He was jailed in February last year for violating parole related to an earlier fraud sentence he and his supporters say was politically motivated.
A judge on Tuesday ruled that Mr. Navalny had stolen donations from the anticorruption Foundation, a nonprofit he founded that worked to investigate official corruption in Russia before it was banned as an “extremist” organization last year, according to a video stream from a courtroom at his penal colony 85 miles east of Moscow. According to prosecutors, Mr. Navalny stole about 350 million rubles, roughly $3.4 million, from the foundation. The opposition politician denied the charges.
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Russian security forces detained Mr. Navalny on his return to Russia in January 2021, after he had spent five months recovering in Germany from a poisoning attack that German scientists said used Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. Mr. Navalny accuses 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,” Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman,
Kira Yarmysh,
said from Vilnius, Lithuania, where many of his aides are now based. “At first he tried to kill Alexei, and when he failed, he decided to keep him in prison forever.”
Mr. Navalny, 45, was also hit with a fine of 1.2 million rubles on Tuesday.
More to follow
Write to Evan Gershkovich at evan.gershkovich@wsj.com
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