Navalny Quotes The Wire After Receiving Sentence

Putin critic gets 9 years after fraud conviction
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 22, 2022 6:35 AM CDT
Updated Mar 22, 2022 8:55 AM CDT
Things Just Got Worse for Putin Critic Navalny
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, center, during a court session in Pokrov, Vladimir region, Tuesday.   (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Update: A Russian court sentenced Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine years in a maximum security prison Tuesday after convicting him of fraud, reports the AP. It wasn't clear whether it would be concurrent with the shorter sentence he's already serving. Navalny's Twitter account responded with a pop culture reference: “(Nine) years. Well, as the characters of my favorite TV series The Wire used to say: ‘You only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you come out.’ I even had a T-shirt with this slogan, but the prison authorities confiscated it, considering the print extremist.” In another tweet, he said he didn't want sympathy and instead called for "actions" against the "war criminals" in the Kremlin. Our original story from Tuesday morning follows:

It looks like one of Vladimir Putin's loudest critics won't be a free man for a while. A Russian court on Tuesday convicted Alexei Navalny of corruption and contempt of court, reports the BBC. The 45-year-old could receive up to 13 years at a penal colony—he is already serving two-plus years for alleged parole violations—when he is sentenced later, per Reuters. Navalny and supporters such as Amnesty International say the charges against him are a sham orchestrated by Putin. (They also say the Russian leader ordered Navalny's nearly fatal poisoning.)

While the world was fixated on Ukraine, "another monstrous crime was being committed inside of Russia," says Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh. Navalny himself showed little reaction to the verdict—"unfazed" is the word used by Reuters—in which prosecutors accused him of embezzling money from his political foundation. Last month, however, he had this to say in a social media post: “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.” (More Alexei Navalny stories.)

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