Navalny facing decades behind bars as trial opens

A trial for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny began Monday as he faces a series of new extremism charges that could add up to 30 years to his sentence. 

The trial is taking place at a maximum security penal colony in Melekhovo, The Associated Press reported, which is 150 miles east of Moscow, where the charges were reportedly initially filed in district court. Navalny has been imprisoned in the penal colony since 2021 on charges related to fraud and contempt of court — which Navalny says are politically motivated. 

Navalny rose to prominence as an anti-Kremlin, anti-corruption organizer. In August 2020, Navalny was poisoned by a nerve agent that nearly killed him. While on a flight, he made an emergency landing and was put in a coma. The U.S. government has described the poisoning as an attempted assassination by officers of the Russian government. 

Navalny returned to Russia after recovering abroad and was imprisoned on charges the U.S. government called “politically motivated.” He was sentenced to nine years.

Reporters were barred from the courtroom Monday but were permitted to watch a video feed of the court proceedings from a separate building. The video feed was cut, however, after prosecutor Nadezhda Tikhonova reportedly asked the judge to conduct a closed-door trial for security reasons. The AP said it was not clear why the judge cut the feed. 

Navalny’s parents were also denied entry to the courtroom, the AP reported. 

Navalny, in court Monday, looked gaunt and wore his prison garb, the AP said, but he “gestured energetically” when speaking about the weakness of the case.

He and his lawyers pleaded for an open trial and argued Russian authorities were trying to suppress details of the case, which Navalny and his team claimed were weak. 

“The investigators, the prosecutors and the authorities in general don’t want the public to know about the trial,” Navalny said, according to the AP.

The start of the new case comes amid an uptick in Russia’s crackdown on dissent as it wages war in Ukraine. Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation is reportedly at the center of the new charges. The AP reported his allies claimed the foundation’s activities have been retroactively criminalized. Navalny faces trial with an associate, Daniel Kholodny, who was reportedly transferred from a different prison for the trial.

Navalny has risen to worldwide prominence in recent years for his courage in standing up to Russian authorities. He was also the subject of a 2022 documentary, “Navalny,” which won the most recent Academy Award for Best Documentary. 

Updated at 9:20 a.m.