Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced Friday to 19 years in prison after he was convicted in a Moscow court on charges of extremism.
Navalny, who is already serving a nine-year prison sentence on charges of fraud and contempt of court, will serve the time at a penal colony, the harshest conditions for Russian inmates, according to state-run media.
The opposition leader has been imprisoned at a maximum security penal colony located 150 miles east of Moscow since 2021.
Navalny has called all the charges against him politically motivated. His supporters see the prison sentences as an attempt to silence his activism.
The U.S. has also called the charges against Navalny politically motivated and criticized the trial for being carried out in secret.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Friday condemned the sentencing, which he called an “unjust conclusion to an unjust trial.”
“For years, the Kremlin has attempted to silence Navalny and prevent his calls for transparency and accountability from reaching the Russian people,” Miller said in a statement. “By conducting this latest trial in secret and limiting his lawyers’ access to purported evidence, Russian authorities illustrated yet again both the baselessness of their case and the lack of due process afforded to those who dare to criticize the regime.”
He appeared in court Friday in prison garb but with a defiant smile on his face, according to The Associated Press. About 40 of his supporters appeared outside the courthouse to protest the verdict.
On Thursday, Navalny said he anticipated the “Stalinist” sentence would be a “huge term” and asked his supporters to show solidarity with him “by thinking for a minute why such an exemplary huge term is necessary.”
“Its main purpose is to intimidate. You, not me. I’ll even say this: you personally, who are reading these words,” Navalny wrote on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
Navalny encouraged his supporters to continue to resist the Kremlin by spreading activism or donating money to his organization. He also said they should turn out in huge numbers and protest the decision in order “to daze and intimidate” the Russian elite.
“We know for sure that if those who are against the war took to the streets, they would stop it immediately,” he said.
Navalny’s closed trial began in June. He faced charges of creating an extremist community through his anti-corruption foundation, which has worked to highlight alleged corruption and abuses under Russian President Vladimir Putin.
An associate of Navalny who helped run his YouTube channel, Daniel Kholodny, also stood trial on extremism charges. It was not immediately clear how many years he was sentenced to, but prosecutors had requested 10 years, according to the AP.
Updated at 12:43 p.m.