Will Putin critic Alexei Navalny serve 15 extra years in jail

Alexei Navalny claimed that he has been charged in a new criminal case and faces an additional 15 years in prison.

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On Tuesday, the Kremlin critic announced on social media that he was charged with forming an extremist organisation and inciting hatred toward the authorities.

This is on top of a nine-year sentence he received in March for fraud and contempt of court, which was added to a two-and-a-half-year sentence he was already serving.

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“Not even eight days have passed since my nine-year high-security sentence came into force, and today the investigator showed up again and formally charged me with a new case,” Navalny had tweeted.

“It turns out that I created an extremist group in order to incite hatred towards officials and oligarchs. And when they put me in jail, I dared to be disgruntled about it and called for rallies. For that, they’re supposed to add up to 15 more years to my sentence,” he added.

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The fresh allegations were not immediately confirmed.

According to numerous European medical institutions, Navalny was poisoned with a nerve toxin during a campaigning tour in Siberia in 2020.

When he returned to Russia in early 2021, he was detained for parole violations after months of medical treatment in Germany.

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Following the invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has stepped up its decades-long campaign to discredit and silence Russia’s domestic opponents. Navalny has spoken out against the war, accusing Putin of being “stupid” and “built on lies” at a court hearing.