On Tuesday, a Russian court found the jailed Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny guilty of large-scale fraud, presumably extending the time for the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent adversary’s time in prison by years.
Navalny is already serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a prison cell east of Moscow for parole violations connected to allegations that he claims were made up to stymie his political ambitions.
In the most recent criminal case against him, which he has similarly denounced as politically motivated, he may face an additional 13 years in prison.
In a chamber full of prison security officials, Navalny stood by his counsel as the judge read out the charges against him. Looking down as he flipped through court documents, the 45-year-old appeared unaffected.
Prosecutors had requested the court to sentence him to 13 years in a maximum-security prison colony for fraud and contempt of court. A decision is expected later on Tuesday.
Navalny was imprisoned last year after returning to Russia after undergoing medical treatment in Germany for a poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve toxin during a visit to Siberia in 2020. Putin, according to Navalny, was responsible for the attack.
The Kremlin said that it had seen no proof that Navalny had been poisoned and rejected any Russian involvement if he had been.
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