MELEKHOVO: Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny went on trial on Monday on new charges of extremism that could keep him behind bars for decades.
The trial opened at a maximum security penal colony in Melekhovo, 250 kilometres (150 miles) east of Moscow, where Navalny, 47, is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court charges he says are politically motivated.
Navalny, who exposed official corruption and organised major anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Navalny, wearing his prison garb, looked gaunt at the session but spoke emphatically about the weakness of the state’s case and gestured energetically.
Navalny has said the new extremism charges, which he rejected as “absurd”, could keep him in prison for another 30 years. He said an investigator told him that he would also face a separate military trial on terrorism charges that could potentially carry a life sentence.
Monday’s trial came amid a sweeping Russian crackdown on dissent amid the fighting in Ukraine, which Navalny has harshly criticised.