Unsurprisingly, a Russian court rejected an appeal filed by Alexei Navalny against a court decision that sentenced him to 19 years in prison.
Judge Viktor Rogov announced that the court, after considering the appeal regarding Navalny’s conviction for extremism, decided to “uphold last month’s decision.” He was found guilty of setting up an organization – the Anti-Corruption Foundation – that undermined public safety by carrying out ‘extremist activities’.
For years, the 47-year-old lawyer has exposed the culture of endemic corruption in the country, culminating in the publication, in 2021, of a documentary about a Black Sea palace to be owned by Vladimir Putin, a property valued at well over a billion euros. That same year he was arrested upon arriving in Moscow from Germany, where he was recovering from poisoning. He was charged with fraud at the time and would never be released.
“You are being forced to hand over your Russia without a fight to a bunch of traitors, thieves and villains who have seized power. Do not lose the will to resist,” Navalny said in a statement. The activist, who communicates abroad through lawyers, has also been a critical voice on the invasion of Ukraine.
While he is held in a high-security penal colony before being sent to a “special regime” colony, a high-security facility reserved for dangerous criminals that will virtually isolate him from the outside world, other allies and adversaries have no different luck. Also in the summer, Lilia Chanysheva, Navalny’s ally in the Republic of Bashkortostan, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and Ksenia Fadeyeva, from the Siberian city of Tomsk, went on trial, accused of founding an extremist organization.
In addition, opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza, a survivor of two poisonings, this week began serving a 25-year sentence for “treason” in a Siberian prison. Judicial repression is not limited to Russian citizens. Two days ago, the release of American journalist Evan Gershkovich was denied. He has been in custody since March on espionage charges.
As Moscow continues to tighten its grip on any internal opposition, attacks on Danube ports continue and it continues to claim that tanks supplied to Ukraine “will burn” – now in relation to the North American Abrams. “These are serious weapons,” said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “They will burn too,” he threatened.
Source: DN
