Putin critic Alexei Navalny gets 19 year jail term over extremism charges; verdict slammed by UK, US
Prominent Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison on Friday. The move came amid a historic crackdown on dissenting voices as Moscow's assault on Ukraine stretches into its second year. The trial was held behind closed doors at the IK-6 penal colony - a maximum-security prison some 250 kilometers east of Moscow where Navalny is jailed.
“They want to frighten you, not me, and deprive you of the will to resist. You are being forced to surrender your Russia without a fight to a gang of traitors, thieves and scoundrels who have seized power. Don't lose the will to resist," Navalny - who had mobilised the largest protests against President Vladimir Putin - wrote in a Facebook post.
The US State Department called the verdict "an unjust conclusion to an unjust trial", while the European Union condemned what it called another politically motivated ruling and called for Navalny's immediate release. "His abuse shows Russia's complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted. The new charges against the politician relate to the activities of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates.
the well-known activist and his supporters have faced a relentless crackdown by Russian authorities since Putin ordered the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Putin's fiercest domestic critic, is already serving sentences totalling 11-1/2 years on fraud and other charges that he says are also bogus. His political movement has been outlawed and declared "extremist".
"Nineteen years in a maximum security penal colony. The number does not matter. I understand perfectly well that, like many political prisoners, I am serving a life
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