Aleksei Navalny Convicted of Fraud by Russian Court This post has been updated. A Russian court sentenced the imprisoned…

Aleksei Navalny Convicted of Fraud by Russian Court
This post has been updated.

A Russian court sentenced the imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny to nine years in a high-security prison on Tuesday and ordered him to pay a fine of about $11,500.

“Navalny committed fraud, that is, the theft of other people’s property through deceit and breach of trust,” the judge said in reading her verdict, according to the news agency Interfax.

Prosecutors claimed that Mr. Navalny and his former Anti-Corruption Foundation embezzled people’s donations.

The verdict, however, was widely seen as a move by the Kremlin to keep Mr. Navalny behind bars beyond the expiration of his current two-and-a-half-year prison term, ostensibly for violating the terms of his parole, in 2023.

For President Putin, the war against Ukraine has made the fiery opposition leader even more of a liability. Read more

@nytimes