Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny faces years more in prison as a new fraud trial started Tuesday that his supporters and human rights defenders say aims to keep President Vladimir Putin’s top critic silent.
Navalny, 45, has been in detention since January 2021, when he returned to Russia after recovering abroad from a near-fatal attack involving a nerve agent that he and Western governments blamed on Putin’s secret services. The Kremlin denies any involvement in the assassination attempt in Siberia.
Held in a strict-regime penal colony about 60 miles east of Moscow, Navalny is going on trial inside the prison. The new charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years and represent a further blow to Putin’s top opponent, who was due to be released next year.
