A court in Russia has extended Alexei Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years, the opposition leader’s supporters said, citing the judge at a court hearing.
Navalny, 47, once led street protests against the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, built a nationwide political opposition, and revealed salacious details of Kremlin officials’ corrupt lifestyles.
As revenge, Russia has sentenced him to a cumulative three decades in prison, a term that will keep the Kremlin critic behind bars and out of politics for as long as Putin remains alive.
Navalny was already serving an 11-and-a-half year sentence for fraud and other charges that he has described as spurious. His supporters have been tracked down and arrested for supporting his “extremist” movement.
Before Friday’s verdict, he had few illusions that he would be released or given a short prison sentence.
“It’s going to be a huge term,” Navalny said in a message passed to his lawyers and posted online on Thursday. “This is what’s called a ‘Stalinist’ term.”
In the messages, Navalny called on Russians to resist the Kremlin, saying the purpose of the new prison sentence was “to intimidate you, not me”.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, judges have begun handing down extremely long prison sentences to Putin’s critics and others accused of betraying their country.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, another Russian opposition critic, was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason and other charges tied to his criticism of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Navalny said: “We know for sure that if one in 10 of those outraged by the corruption of Putin and his officials took to the streets, the government would fall tomorrow. We know for sure that if those who are against the war took to the streets, they would stop it immediately.”
His trial was held behind closed doors at the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, about 145 miles (235km) east of Moscow. The opposition leader appeared thin but defiant in his first appearance on a closed circuit television feed. But a judge quickly closed the trial to the public, limiting publicity and making it nearly impossible to follow the proceedings.
State prosecutors had requested that Navalny get a further 20 years on six criminal charges, including creating an extremist organisation and then financing and inciting extremist activities.
In a closing statement at his trial, Navalny said: “For a new, free, rich country to be born, it must have parents. Those who want it, who expect it and who are willing to make sacrifices for its birth.”
Navalny’s new sentence comes as Putin, 70, is widely expected to assume another six-year term as president beginning in 2024, meaning he could remain in power until 2030 or even 2036, according to new constitutional rules.
His time in power, which began in 1999, could potentially surpass that of even Josef Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for almost 31 years.
Russia has become far more repressive since it invaded Ukraine, with most of the country’s high-profile opposition people either in prison or forced into exile.
Navalny, however, was always a special target. He was arrested in early 2021 after recovering from an attempted assassination by poison that has been tied to the FSB security service. First sent back to prison for violating an old probationary term, he was then given a further nine years for fraud and contempt of court.
He is also facing terrorism charges that could add decades more to his prison sentence.
In February, Putin ordered the FSB to raise its game and said it was necessary “to identify and stop the illegal activities of those who are trying to divide and weaken our society”.
The Kremlin, which at one point accused Navalny of working with the CIA to undermine Russia, denied any involvement in what happened to him and denies persecuting him. It has portrayed him as an agent of disruption and says he never represented a serious political threat.
The Kremlin says his case is purely a legal matter for the courts. His supporters cast Navalny as a Russian version of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela who will one day be freed from prison to govern the country.
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