Another nine years for jailed Navalny

The Kremlin critic, who is already serving a two-and-a-half year sentence, has been convicted on fraud charges as part of Putin’s crackdown on political dissent.

You only do two days

To say Alexei Navalny has had it tough is an understatement. After being poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok – for which the Kremlin, obviously, denies any involvement – he returned to Moscow from Berlin only to be immediately jailed for failing to observe bail conditions. Not like life-saving treatment warrants heading out of the country, right?

Since then, Navalny has continued being a thorn in Putin’s side. And while it’s almost certain the regime’s legal system would have sentenced him to jail for just about any charge they fancied, Navalny was typically sanguine. He wrote on Twitter: “Well, as the characters of my favorite TV series “The Wire” used to say: “You only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you come out“.

Who isn’t an extremist organization in Russia?

Silencing critics is Putin’s favorite game. Thankfully, he has a lot to get round to. Even Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has been declared an extremist organization. So for many that have been watching the Navalny debacle unfold, this extended sentence will come as little surprise – least of all to Navalny himself.

Amnesty International has dismissed the trial as a ‘sham’, and this has been echoed by both the US and EU. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that this was nothing to do with Navalny ‘stealing’ donations from now banned organizations – it’s just about silencing him completely. But with the world watching Putin’s tyrannical exploits, there’s little doubt over who should really be behind bars.