Opponent Alexei Navalny says he is the subject of new charges punishable by 30 years in prison

Jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny said Thursday, October 20, that he faces new criminal charges for “promoting terrorism”, “advocating extremism”, “financing extremist activities” and “rehabilitating Nazism”, which carries a 30-year prison sentence. . “The lawyers calculated that it was about 30 years old, subject to the provisions laid down in each of these articles.” of the Penal Code, he said in a message broadcast by his team on social media.

The 46-year-old anti-corruption activist, who is considered the main critic of President Vladimir Putin, says he received a notice informing him of the opening of this new criminal case when he was already imprisoned. “I am a genius in the underworld (…) You all thought I was in solitary confinement for two years, in prison, but in fact I was actively committing crimes”He sarcastically congratulated the Russian investigators for what they had done “vigilance”.

According to him, these new accusations are clearly linked, in part, to videos posted by his allies in exile, who continue their campaign against Russian power from abroad. Alexei Navalny was arrested in Russia in January 2021, upon his return to the country after being subjected to a serious attempted poisoning, which he attributes to the Kremlin.

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He was sentenced last March to nine years in prison under a “severe” regime for “fraud”, which he considers fictitious. He continues to send letters denouncing Vladimir Putin and his interference in Ukraine to his lawyer, which his team then publishes on the Internet. This summer, he repeatedly claimed that he was put in a penal cell in his penal colony near Vladimir, 200 kilometers east of Moscow.