MELEKHOVO: Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny had an extra 19 years added to his jail term on Friday in a criminal case that he said had been trumped up to keep him behind bars and out of politics for even longer.
Navalny, who is President Vladimir 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”. Daniel Kholodny, a TV technician in the YouTube channel of Navalny, was also found guilty on Friday of organising an extremist group.