Putin jailed his fiercest critic for nine years ‘because he’s afraid of truth’

Putin’s fiercest critic Alexei Navalny said the Russian dictator is ‘afraid of the truth’ after he was jailed for another nine years at a ‘show trial’.

The Russian opposition leader, 45, was convicted of fraud at a makeshift courtroom in a prison, where he’s been holed up ever since his arrest in January 2021.

He was detained after spending five months recovering from a Novichok poisoning in Germany, which he blamed on the Kremlin.

Tens of thousands of Russians filled the streets in protest at his arrest, demanding he be released and chanting anti-Putin slogans.

The Russian leader responded by arresting thousands of protesters and unleashing the harshest crackdown since the Soviet era.

Immediately after his arrest, Navalny was jailed for two and a half years for ‘parole violations’ dating back to 2014, and sent to a prison colony near Moscow.

His organisation was outlawed, and his associates were either prosecuted, forced to flee Russia, or had their hands tied by new draconian laws.

Putin’s long-time foe was summoned to the prison court last month, where prosecutors accused him of embezzling money through his foundation and insulting a judge at a previous trial.

His allies rejected the ‘bogus’ charges saying they were designed to keep him behind bars for as long as possible.

Navalny appeared at the hearing dressed in prison garb and made several elaborate speeches decrying the trial.

Last month, Russian officials added Navalny and a number of his associates to a state registry of extremists and terrorists.

Several other criminal cases have been launched against Navalny, potentially tying him up in the prison courts for decades.

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