Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and his allies have been charged with setting up an “extremist group,” Russia’s Investigative Committee, which looks into major crimes, declared in a statement Tuesday. If convicted, Bloomberg reported, Navalny could face up to 10 years in prison.
“This is already the FOURTH criminal case that has been brought against Alexei while he is imprisoned,” Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmish, wrote on Twitter.
The probe is the latest escalation in Navalny’s conflict with the Russian authorities. In June, Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation was banned for being “extremist” by a Russian court. In August, Navalny and his allies were accused of creating “a non-profit organization that infringes on the persons and rights of citizens,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Navalny was arrested earlier this year and sentenced to two and a half years in prison after returning to Russia from Germany, where he was recovering from being poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, an attack he blames on the Russian state. The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
