Putin critic sentenced to additional prison time

A Russian court sentenced Putin critic Alexei Navalny on Friday to 19 additional years in prison on extremism charges. The sentencing occurred behind closed doors in the Melekhovo prison colony northeast of Moscow, where Navalny is already incarcerated. He is one of President Vladimir Putin’s most tenacious critics. His work has exposed significant evidence of corruption in the Kremlin. Navalny was ordered to serve his new prison sentence in a “special regime” penal colony with the highest level of security.

Why is Navalny already in prison? He was serving a nine-year term for various extremism charges that he claims were politically motivated. Russian officials added an additional 2½ years to his sentence for a parole violation in 2021. He was arrested upon returning to Moscow after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning. Navalny blames the Kremlin for the attempted poisoning. 

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Jill Nelson’s report on the decline of freedom and society in Russia.