Russia's Navalny faces decades in prison in new trial

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is set to go on trial on Monday on charges of “extremism” that could keep him behind bars for decades.

The new case against the opposition leader comes as Moscow ramps up its crackdown, more than a year into its offensive in Ukraine, with most key opposition figures behind bars or in exile.

Navalny, who used to mobilize massive anti-Kremlin protests, is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence on embezzlement charges that his supporters see as punishment for his political work.

The 47-year-old was arrested in 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he recovered from a poison attack the previous year that he blamed on the Kremlin.

He has suffered from major weight loss in prison, and now faces up to another 30 years behind bars.

Navalny said that prosecutors provided him with 3,828 pages describing all the crimes he is alleged to have committed while in prison.

“Although it is clear from the size of the tomes that I am a sophisticated and persistent criminal, it is impossible to find out what exactly I am accused of,” Navalny quipped.

He has been charged with financing extremist activity, publicly inciting extremist activities and “rehabilitating the Nazi ideology”, among other crimes.

– ‘Tried for political work’ –

This will be the first formally political case against him, his team said.

“He is being tried for his political work,” Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh told AFP.

The trial will take place at the maximum security IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Moscow, where Navalny is jailed.

Yarmysh said the first court hearing on Monday was expected to be open to the public but the judge could ban reporters from covering the proceedings “even three minutes after the start”.

In April, Navalny said he was told he would be judged by a military tribunal over “terrorism” charges. He could face life in prison, he said.

Navalny’s team says he has been harassed in prison, where he was kept in a “punishment cell” for perceived transgressions.

He said prison officials forced him to share a cell with a sick, foul-smelling inmate and subjected him and other prisoners to “torture by Putin”, making them listen to the Kremlin chief’s speeches.

Despite his ordeal, the opposition leader, a lawyer by training, has sought to keep his spirits up in jail, fighting for his basic rights and taking prison officials to court.

– ‘Wake up in this hellhole’ –

He has also taunted his jailers, reporting that he has filed formal requests for a balalaika and a kimono and to be allowed to keep a kangaroo and a May bug in jail.

On his third birthday behind bars in early June, Navalny said he was “in a really good mood”.

“Of course I wish I didn’t have to wake up in this hellhole and instead have breakfast with my family, receive kisses on the cheek from my children, unwrap presents.”

Navalny has built a huge social media operation producing videos exposing corruption of the Russian elites close to Vladimir Putin.

He still communicates on social media through his team.

He said in February that Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine was “inevitable” and Russia should pay for Ukraine’s losses once the fighting ends.

Navalny had set up a network of campaign offices across the country and aimed to run for president in 2018, but election authorities did not allow him to challenge Putin.

Navalny’s offices were designated “extremist” organizations in 2021, putting employees, volunteers and supporters at risk of prosecution.

In mid-June, a Russian court sentenced the head of Navalny’s headquarters in the central city of Ufa, Lilia Chanysheva, to seven-and-a-half years in prison.

Thousands of Russians have been arrested for protesting the conflict in Ukraine, and most high-profile activists still in Russia — including Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin — are behind bars.

bur/gw/smw