Who is Alexei Navalny, Putin opponent sentenced to prison again

Alexei Navalny is a long-standing and persistent nuisance to Vladimir Putin’s government.

In the latest setback for the prominent opposition leader, he was found guilty of fraud by a Moscow court and sentenced to nine years in prison in a maximum security colony, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

While not directly linked to the invasion of Ukraine, the verdict coincides with Putin’s widespread crackdown on opposition voices and independent media over the past four weeks.

Navalny will appeal his guilty verdict of fraud, according to his lawyer, reports RIA, the Russian state domestic news agency.

But who is Navalny?

The activist is a prominent agitator of popular protests and has exposed cases of corruption by the Russian government and companies on social media and on his blog.

Putin’s opponent gained notable international attention in August 2020 when he fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow and slipped into a coma on suspicion of poisoning.

Navalny was treated in Germany, where the government said he had been poisoned with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group. Novichok was used in a March 2018 attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal in the English cathedral city of Salisbury.

Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021 and was immediately detained by authorities.

A month later, a Moscow court sentenced Navalny to prison for more than two and a half years for violating parole conditions, linked to a 2014 case while he was in Germany.

Russian officials branded the activist and his supporters as subversives determined to destabilize Russia with Western support. Many of the activist’s allies fled the country to avoid restrictions or even prison.

Supporters of Navalny’s movement continue to express their political stance, including their opposition to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, on social media.