Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said he faces imprisonment beyond 2050 on terrorism charges.
Mr Navalny, the most famous critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, is currently serving combined sentences of 11.5 years for fraud and contempt of court on charges he says were trumped up to silence him.
Speaking via video link from his penal colony, Mr Navalny said that investigators had opened a terrorism case against him that could see him sentenced to an additional 30 years in jail.
“They have made absurd accusations, according to which I face 30 years in prison,” he said in a statement published by his supporters.
Mr Navalny claimed the terrorism charges related to a separate criminal case opened against him in October accusing him of creating an extremist group, inciting hatred against state officials and calling for unauthorised protests.
Russian authorities have not yet confirmed the terrorism charges.
Mr Navalny, 46, said the charges implied he had been “conducting terror attacks while sitting in prison”.
The former lawyer has been in prison since returning to Russia in January 2021 following his recovery from a nerve agent attack in Siberia.
He initially received a 2.5 year prison sentence for a parole violation, but was subsequently sentenced to a nine-year term for fraud and contempt of court.
He is currently serving time at a maximum-security prison 250 kilometres east of Moscow.
Mr Navalny’s latest court appearance was part of a hearing to discuss preparations for Navalny’s trial on the extremism charges.
His legal team has asked for more time to study the 196 case files.
Mr Putin has intensified a crackdown on freedom of speech and protest since launching a brutal invasion of Ukraine last year.
Under laws brought in by the Kremlin in the aftermath of the invasion, it is effectively illegal to publicly criticise Russia’s military action in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, a Russian court convicted a top opposition figure, Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., of treason for publicly denouncing Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Separately on Wednesday, Russian investigators said that 11 people had been put on an "international wanted list" in a case linked to Navalny, state-owned news agency TASS reported.
