Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has urged his supporters to begin a broad campaign against Moscow’s actions in Ukraine as he went on trial on new charges of extremism that could keep him behind bars for decades.
The trial began inside a maximum security penal colony in Melekhovo, 150 miles east of Moscow, where Navalny, 47, is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court — charges he says are politically motivated.
Soon after it started, the judge closed the trial despite Mr Navalny’s demand to keep it open.
In a statement posted on social media by his allies, he said the decision to close the trial was a sign of fear by President Vladimir Putin, and he announced the start of a campaign against Moscow’s decision to send troops to Ukraine.
Mr Navalny said the effort must reach out to millions to explain the disastrous impact of the fighting and “combat Putin’s lies and the Kremlin’s hypocrisy”. He argued that despite a relentless crackdown on dissent, such a campaign could be efficiently conducted on messaging apps outside authorities’ control.
“No one but us could enter this fight for our citizens’ hearts and minds, so we need to do it and win,” he said.
Mr Navalny, who exposed official corruption and organised major anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 on returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Wearing his prison uniform, he looked gaunt at the session but spoke emphatically about the weakness of the state’s case and gestured energetically.
Mr Navalny has said the new extremism charges, which he rejected as “absurd”, could keep him in prison for another 30 years. He said an investigator told him he would also face a separate military trial on terrorism charges that potentially carry a life sentence.
The Moscow City Court, which opened the hearing at Penal Colony No 6, did not allow reporters in the courtroom and they watched the proceedings on a video feed from a separate building.
Mr Navalny’s parents were also denied access to the court and followed the hearing remotely.
He and his lawyers urged the judge to hold an open trial, arguing that authorities are eager to suppress details of proceedings to cover up the weakness of the case.
“The investigators, the prosecutors and the authorities in general don’t want the public to know about the trial,” Mr Navalny said.
Prosecutor Nadezhda Tikhonova asked the judge to conduct the trial behind closed doors, citing security concerns. The judge agreed and reporters were asked to leave the premises.
Asked about the decision to close the trial, Mr Navalny’s father Anatoly told reporters it showed “the utter lack of shame, conscience and dignity”.
Russia’s state news agencies and other media reported on the trial, but the most watched government-controlled TV stations did not cover it.
The new charges relate to the activities of Mr Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. His allies said the charges retroactively criminalise all the activities of his foundation since its creation in 2011.
One of his associates, Daniel Kholodny, was moved from a different prison to face trial alongside him.
Mr Navalny has spent months in a tiny, one-person “punishment cell” for purported disciplinary violations such as an alleged failure to properly button his prison clothes, properly introduce himself to a guard or to wash his face at a specified time.
His associates and supporters have accused prison authorities of failing to provide him with proper medical assistance and voiced concern about his health.
