Russian opposition crackdown jails Navalny associate
An colleague of Navalny has been arrested as the Russian government continues its onslaught on the opposition. Navalny, who had exposed government corruption and organised enormous anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon his return to Moscow from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve agent poisoning. Navalny had been poisoned in the previous year.
MOSCOW: As the Kremlin continues to tighten down on political activists, a close friend of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was found guilty on extremism-related charges on Monday.
Vadim Ostanin, who formerly ran Navalny’s office in Barnaul, southern Siberia, received a nine-year prison sentence after being found responsible for organising an extremist group and belonging to a nonprofit that “infringes on citizens’ rights,” according to a statement posted on social media by Navalny’s team.
Prior to this, the 46-year-old’s defence team had requested an 11-year sentence.
After Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his regional offices were designated by the Russian government as “extremist organisations” in October 2021, Ostanin was arrested in November of that same year.
The conviction of Ostanin is the most recent in a line of recent prosecutions of local activists connected to Navalny’s activity.
On June 14, Lilia Chanysheva, who oversaw Navalny’s headquarters in the city of Ufa in central Russia, was given a similar prison term of seven and a half years. Chanysheva said that her case was driven by politics.
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