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New investigations could lead to a longer sentence for the Kremlin critic, his allies fear.
Russia has launched three new criminal investigations against Alexey Navalny, a jailed Kremlin critic who claims his allies fear the move could keep him behind bars for many years.
In a post on Instagram on Tuesday, Navalny said he was aware of the cases by an investigator who had been arrested a day earlier.
The 44-year-old is being held in a penal colony in eastern Moscow and is serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for violations of parole associated with the 2014 conviction.
He was arrested in January when he returned from Germany to Russia, where he spent five months recovering from a poisoning of nerve agents he accused the Kremlin of.
“I’m becoming a tougher criminal every day,” Navalny joked on his Instagram post. “So don’t think I’m just sitting in a cell, drinking tea and doing nothing.”
He said investigators were investigating alleged mismanagement of nearly $ 5 million from the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and accused him of insulting Judge Vera Akimova.
Akimova filed a Defamation case against Navalny in February because he was convicted of insulting a World War II veteran. He has rejected this case without basis.
Navalny said he was accused of creating a non-profit organization and urging Russians to suspend “their civil duties” in order to investigate the vast personal wealth that President Vladimir Putin believes.
Navalny released a probe in January for Russian tycoons allegedly built by Putin in a Black Sea mansion.
The video has garnered more than 116 million views on Youtube. Putin has denied that the palace is his.
Citing the investigator, the Kremlin critic said the three new probes were “high priority” and that more than 20 researchers had been working on them.
Moscow is stepping up pressure on Navalny’s move
Navalny’s allies feared that new claims against him could extend his time in prison.
“Putin has decided to keep Navalny in prison for life,” tweeted aide Maria Pevchikh. “That way it’s more comfortable for him.”
New charges were announced ahead of the September parliamentary elections as pressure on Russia’s political opposition is mounting.
Next month, a judicial trial will be held to determine whether Navalny’s network of regional offices and his FBK should be classified as “extreme” by Russian authorities.
In an effort to protect his members and supporters from possible charges, Navalny’s network was disbanded prior to the ruling.
Since then, most of his main allies have been arrested at home or left for Russia.
Russia’s financial monitoring service Rosfinmonitoring has already added Navalny’s political network to its database of “terrorist and extremist” organizations.
In another coup in Navalny’s circle, Russian politicians recently agreed to pass legislation that would ban members of “extremist” organizations from being members of parliament.
Navalny’s imprisonment this year sparked protests at the state level against the government.
The Kremlin denounced the rallies as illegal, as thousands of people in attendance were arrested by authorities.
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