Judge of the Moscow City Court Andrey Suvorov at an offsite hearing in IK-6 in the Vladimir Region sentenced opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 19 years in a special regime colony, Interfax reports. The state prosecution requested that he be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Alexei Navalny was found guilty under six articles: on the creation of an extremist community, calls for extremism, the creation of an NPO that infringes on the rights of citizens, the financing of extremism, as well as on the involvement of minors in dangerous acts and on the rehabilitation of Nazism. In addition to the term, he was fined 850,000 rubles, Vedomosti reports.

The Moscow City Court also sentenced Daniel Kholodny, former technical director of the Navalny Live YouTube channel, who has been in jail since March 2022, to 8 years in a penal colony. He was found guilty under the article on participation in extremist activities and its financing. The state prosecution requested that he be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The case was considered behind closed doors. According to Mediazona (recognized as a foreign agent), the parents of Alexei Navalny were not allowed into the hall. The Moscow City Court moved hearings on the case of extremism to a closed session in June, as the state prosecution warned of “possible provocations.”

A criminal case on extremism against Alexei Navalny was initiated in the fall of 2022. The oppositionist’s associates explained that the episodes about the creation of extremist communities and the financing of extremism are connected with the work of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (recognized as extremist, banned in the Russian Federation, liquidated) and collecting donations for the work of organizations created by Alexei Navalny. The article on the involvement of minors in dangerous acts refers to protest actions organized by the FBK, in which "several people under 18 years old participated."

Alexei Navalny was sentenced to imprisonment in February 2021. He was sentenced to two years and eight months in a penal colony in the Yves Rocher case (fraud; Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In March 2022, he was found guilty in another case of fraud and insulting a judge (Article 297 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and he was sentenced to nine years in a strict regime colony (according to the totality of crimes).