Jailed Putin critic Navalny gets 19 extra years in prison in latest attempt by the Kremlin to silence him

A Russian court has convicted imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny of extremism changes – and sentenced him to an extra 19 years in prison.

Mr Navalny – President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic – is already serving a term of more than 11 years on a variety of charges which have widely been derided as politically motivated. His political movement has been outlawed and declared “extremist”.

A court at the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, about 145 miles (235 kiolmetres) east of Moscow where he is serving his sentences, was hearing his case on six separate criminal charges, including inciting and financing extremist activity and creating an extremist organisation.

Dressed in his dark prison uniform and flanked by his lawyers, Navalny smiled at times as he listened to the judge. The audio feed from the court was so poor that it was practically impossible to make out what the judge was saying.

The fresh sentence will come as little suprise to Mr Navalny himself, who, on the eve of the trial posted a message to social media via his team saying that he was expecting a “huge” extension of his prison time. “A Stalinist term” he said, referring to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. He said the purpose would be to frighten Russians, but urged them not to let that happen and to think hard about how best to resist what he called the “villains and thieves in the Kremlin”.

State prosecutors had asked the court to hand him another 20 years. Mr Navalny, a lawyer has proven to be a significant thorn in the side of Mr Putin ever since he rose to prominence in the 2010s. In 2011, Mr Navalny founded the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which will become his team’s main platform for exposing alleged graft among Russia’s top political ranks. His reputation only grew in playing a prominent role in anti-Kremlin protests in 2011 and 2012 that brought thousands out onto the streets.

In 2021, Russian authorities outlawed Mr Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and their vast network of offices in Russian regions, calling them extremist organisations and exposing anyone involved to possible prosecution. Mr Navalny’s allies say the charges retroactively criminalise all the foundation’s activities since its creation.

Mr Navalny, 47, has exposed official corruption with videoes he has released racking up tens of millions of views online. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from what is believed to have been nerve agent poisoning. He blamed that poisoning on the Kremlin – as did a number of Western nations – although it has denied involvement.

Authorities sentenced him to two and a half years in prison for parole violations relating to previous cases and then to another nine years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. It isn’t immediately clear if he will serve the new sentence concurrently with those.

To coincide with the start of this latest trial, Mr Navalny and his team had announced a new mass campaign to turn Russian public opinion against Mr Putin and his invasion of Ukraine – urging Russians to “join forces in the fight against Putin’s lies and Kremlin hypocrisy”.

“We will conduct an election campaign against war. And against Putin. Just that. A long, stubborn, exhausting but fundamentally important campaign where we will turn people against the war,” he said in his launch messages. Mr Navalny argued that despite a relentless crackdown on dissent, such a campaign could be efficiently conducted on messaging apps outside the authorities’ control. Mr Navalny’s movement is banned from all political activity.

“No one but us could enter this fight for our citizens’ hearts and minds, so we need to do it and win,” Mr Navalny said.