Navalny facing jail threat as Kremlin rejects western criticism

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny faces possible imprisonment on Tuesday for up to 3½ years, despite nationwide protests and western calls for the Kremlin to halt its alleged bid to silence the anti-corruption campaigner.

A Moscow court is due to hear accusations that Mr Navalny broke the terms of a suspended sentence by failing to report to the Russian authorities late last year, when he was recovering abroad from a near-fatal poisoning in Siberia.

Russian prosecutors have refused to investigate the nerve agent attack, which Mr Navalny says was conducted by state security on the Kremlin's orders, and he was arrested last month on his return to Moscow from Germany.

Tens of thousands of people have responded by rallying in towns and cities across Russia over the last two weekends to support Mr Navalny and denounce the autocratic rule of President Vladimir Putin, who has run the country for 20 years.

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Political motivation

The Russian prosecutor general’s office said on Monday that the prison service’s request to convert Mr Navalny’s suspended sentence into jail time was “legal and justified” and would be supported by state prosecutors in court on Tuesday.

The conviction was handed down after a 2014 trial for fraud that was widely seen as politically motivated, and which the European Court of Human Rights found to be “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable”.

The United States and European Union have urged Russia to free Mr Navalny (44) and end a crackdown on protests in which more than 9,000 people have been arrested, some violently, during anti-Putin demonstrations.

Germany – which is under pressure from several EU states to halt its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Russia – also called for the campaigner’s release. His brother, Oleg, and several of his main aides were placed under house arrest last week, and on Monday his wife, Yulia, was fined for taking part in Sunday’s march.

Black Sea palace

"Naturally, police take measures against participants in these unlawful rallies," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. "We are not prepared to accept or take notice of the Americans' statements on this issue. And we will not."

Russia has accused the US of fomenting protests and spreading "fakes" on the internet, in apparent reference to a report in which Mr Navalny accuses Mr Putin of being the secret owner of a €1 billion palace on the Black Sea; he denies the claim, but the film has been viewed more than 106 million times on YouTube in less than two weeks.

"The Russian government makes a big mistake if it believes that this is about us," US secretary of state Antony Blinken told NBC News.

“It’s about them. It’s about the government. It’s about the frustration that the Russian people have with corruption, with autocracy, and I think they need to look inward, not outward.”