Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has gone on trial on new charges of extremism that could keep him behind bars for decades. The session took place at a maximum security penal colony in Melekhovo, east of Moscow, where Navalny is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court — charges he says are politically motivated. Navalny, who exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. Navalny, wearing his prison garb, looked gaunt at the session but spoke emphatically about the weakness of the state’s case and gestured energetically.
