JAILED Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said today he faced life in prison as he denounced “extremism” and “terrorism” charges against him.  

Navalny’s team says authorities are preparing a major new trial against the enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin.   

“They have brought absurd charges against me, according to which I am facing up to 35 years,” Navalny said, appearing via video link at a pre-trial hearing at Moscow’s Basmanny district court.  

Navalny, 46, said within the framework of the new case he was told he would be separately judged by a military tribunal over “terrorism” charges.  

He said he could face life in prison.  

Last October, Navalny said investigators had launched a new criminal case against him on allegations of “extremism” and “terrorism” and “rehabilitating the Nazi ideology”.  

Navalny, who used to mobilise massive protests against the Kremlin, is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence on embezzlement and other charges.  

He barely survived a poisoning with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent, which the opposition politician blames on the Kremlin. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning from Germany after recovering from the poisoning attack. – AFP, April 26, 2023.