Topline
Alexei Navalny, who led opposition movements against Vladimir Putin and was taken into custody in Russia in a widely condemned arrest in 2021, is facing up to 30 more years in prison—on top of an existing decade-long sentence—as he went on trial Monday for extremism.
Navalny spoke during his trial Monday, with a legal team by his side.
Key Facts
Navalny’s trial began Monday in a penal colony about 150 miles east of Moscow where he has been serving a more than 11 year sentence since February 2021.
The new trial accuses Navalny of creating an extremist group, making calls for and financing extremism, creating a nonprofit organization that violates citizens rights and “rehabilitating” Nazism.
Navalny’s organization Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was founded in 2011 and published investigations into alleged corruption in the Russian government, was designated as an extremist group four months after he was found guilty.
Navalny has called the new charges against him “absurd.”
Navalny said he is representing himself in the trial, though a legal team appeared with him in court.
During the trial, Navalny requested recusal of Judge Andrei Suvorov, who is overseeing the proceedings, because the trial should be held in Moscow since he is a resident of the city and the trial is about organizations based there, he said—the motion was denied, according to Radio Free Europe.
Key Background
Navalny was arrested in 2021 upon returning to his native Russia from Germany, where he was receiving medical treatment after being poisoned. He said he believed he was poisoned by Putin’s government in an assassination attempt but the Kremlin has denied it. Navalny was initially given two-and-a-half years for breaking bail to be treated in Germany, and then was given an additional nine years for fraud and contempt of the court. For more than two decades, Navalny led organizations and ran for office in opposition of Putin’s government, and he hosted a YouTube channel with six million subscribers at its height in 2021.
Tangent
The Russian government has increased its crackdown on dissent since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, imprisoning and extending sentences for people it believes oppose the war or the Kremlin. In March 2023, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested and accused of espionage while on a reporting trip in Russia, and remains in detention until his trial at the end of August.
Further Reading
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says he faces life in jail over terror charges (Guardian)
Navalny Faces 30 More Years As New Trial Starts At Russian Penal Colony (Radio Free Europe)
Navalny Says Russian Agent Confessed to Plot to Poison Him (New York Times)
Inside Russia’s Crackdown On Dissent (New York Times)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/06/19/putin-critic-navalny-could-get-decades-more-in-prison-as-he-faces-new-trial/