Russian opponent Aleksey Navalny was sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment . The sentence came in the trial for "extremism" considered to have a clear political matrix. The prosecution had asked for 20 years ' imprisonment.
Yesterday, on the eve of the sentence, Navalny said he expected a "Stalinist" sentence and a heavy sentence.
The accusations against him are considered to be of obvious political origin , as well as those for which he has been behind bars for more than two and a half years.
In 2021, the Russian authorities branded both Navalny's network of offices in Russia and the opponent's Anti-Corruption Foundation as "extremist", whose investigations in past years have repeatedly embarrassed the Kremlin, and it is on this charge that based the trial, which took place behind closed doors in the prison 200 kilometers from Moscow where the former leader of the anti-Putin protests is being held.
Navalny is considered Putin's main political opponent , and was arrested in January 2021 and as soon as he set foot back in Moscow from Berlin, where he had been treated for a poisoning that left fears for his life and for which the main suspects are the Russian secret services.
Navalny also denounces continuous abuses in prison and of being repeatedly locked up in a narrow punishment cell under the most flimsy pretexts.
THE REACTIONS – «The latest verdict of yet another show trial against Alexey Navalny is unacceptable . This arbitrary condemnation is the answer to his courage to speak out critically against the Kremlin regime. I reiterate of NavalnyA; the words in a tweet the president of the EU Council, Charles Michel.
