Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony last month. File image shows people laying flowers during a gathering.
| Photo Credit: AP
A Moscow court has sentenced two university students to more than three years in prison for their involvement with the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Russia in 2021 outlawed Navalny’s organisations as “extremist” and has handed down lengthy prison sentences to several of the Kremlin critic’s aides and supporters.
Moscow’s Khoroshevsky District Court sentenced Ivan Trofimov, 23, and Alina Olekhnovich, 22, to three-and-a-half years in a penal colony on charges of participating in an “extremist” organisation, state media and rights groups reported on Thursday, citing the court’s press service.
The pair were sentenced on Wednesday, according to a database on the court’s website.
Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony last month, where he was serving a 19-year sentence widely seen as political retribution for campaigning against the Kremlin.
His allies have accused the Kremlin of ordering his killing and Western leaders say President Vladimir Putin is “responsible” for his death.
Olekhnovich and Trofimov — contemporary art students at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics — were arrested in July 2023, according to the Memorial human rights group.
Most of Navanly’s top aides fled into exile as the group was targeted by Russian authorities.
Following Navalny’s death last month, his wife Yulia Navalnaya has pledged to continue her husband’s work.
