A Russian court on Tuesday found President Vladimir Putin’s critic Alexei Navalny guilty of large-scale fraud.

Mr Navalny is already serving a two-and-a-half sentence at a prison camp east of Moscow for parole violations related to charges he insisted were fabricated to thwart his political ambitions.

In the latest criminal case against him, which he also dismissed as politically-motivated, he could have up to 13 years added to that sentence.

Prosecutors had asked the court to send him to a maximum-security penal colony for 13 years on fraud charges and contempt of court. A ruling is expected later on Tuesday.

He was jailed last year when he returned to Russia after receiving medical treatment in Germany, following a poison attack with a Soviet-era nerve agent during a visit to Siberia in 2020.

Mr Navalny blamed Mr Putin for the attack. The Kremlin said it had seen no evidence that he was poisoned and denied any Russian role if he was.

After the last court hearing into his case on March 15, Mr Navalny struck a typically defiant tone, writing via Instagram: “If the prison term is the price of my human right to say things that need to be said … then they can ask for 113 years. I will not renounce my words or deeds.”

(Reuters/NAN)