(Adnkronos) – Russia has sentenced Olga Komleva, a journalist and former volunteer for Alexey Navalny’s party, to 12 years in prison, under the rules by which Moscow considers any collaboration with the opponent’s organizations illegal, even if it occurred in the past. The 46-year-old had volunteered for Navalny’s party, banned as “extremist” in 2021, according to the independent media outlet Mediazona, and was found guilty of criticizing the Russian army while following the Russian offensive in Ukraine and anti-government protests for the independent media outlet RusNews.
The Kremlin has intensified its decade-long crackdown on independent media since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, imposing strict censorship laws that effectively ban any criticism of the military. A district court in the central Russian city of Ufa “found that the defendant participated in the activities of an extremist community” and “spread deliberately false information about the actions of the armed forces,” the statement said, in which the court recognizes the guilt and sentence of the defendant.
Komleva did not admit her guilt on any of the charges and was seen smiling and waving from inside the defendant’s cage after hearing the verdict, saying “I love everyone” to a group of people who came to support her, according to a video posted by RusNews. According to Mediazona, Komleva suffers from diabetes and has had difficulty accessing medication while in pre-trial detention. Navalny died a year and a half ago while being held in a Russian penal colony.
