Russian court jails Navalny ally in absentia for 18 years as dissident crackdown continues

Courts in Russia on Friday convicted one opposition figure in absentia and placed another under house arrest as Moscow continues its crackdown on dissent.

Leonid Volkov, a close associate of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was sentenced in absentia to 18 years in prison after being found guilty on criminal charges.

Moscow's Second Western District Military convicted Volkov under 40 counts including justifying terrorism, organizing and financing an extremist group, rehabilitating Nazism, and creating a non-governmental organization that violated citizens' rights, Russian news agencies reported.

As well as the prison sentence, Volkov was also fined 2 million rubles (approx. $25,000) and banned from using the internet for 10 years.

"Oh no! They banned me from the internet for 10 years as prosecutors requested, but I’ve already been using it", Volkov wrote in a tongue-in-cheek social media post after the sentence was released. "Damn. Whatever am I going to do?”

Volkov, who was in charge of Navalny's regional offices and election campaigns, left Russia several years ago under pressure from the authorities. He led Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation between 2021 and 2023, during which time he was placed on the Russian government's list of terrorists and extremists. The case against him is widely seen in Russia as political motivated.

Separately, Lev Shlosberg, a senior member of the Yabloko opposition party, was placed under house arrest Wednesday after being detained on charges of discrediting the Russian army.

A court in the city of Pskov, close to Russia's western border, ordered Shlosberg to be detained at home for two months pending investigation and trial, the court's press service said. His case has also been widely viewed as politically motivated.

Russian authorities have accused Shlosberg of discrediting the nation's military by calling for a ceasefire in Russia's war with Ukraine. Shlosberg has said that he did not share the social media video or administer the page on which it was posted. If found guilty, he faces up to five years imprisonment.

The politician, who has repeatedly criticized Moscow's war, was previously named as a "foreign agent" by Russian authorities, a loaded term that carries connotations of Soviet-era treachery.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has clamped down on all forms of dissent, targeting rights groups, independent media and other members of civil-society organizations, LGBTQ+ activists and certain religious affiliations.