Navalny says he is facing three new investigations
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny says he is now the subject of three additional criminal investigations, according to an Instagram post on his account published Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Navalny wrote that he learned about the new inquiries from an investigator who visited him in custody on Monday.
“I’m becoming a more hardened criminal every day,” Navalny said in the post, according to the Reuters translation. “So don’t think I’m only sitting in a cell, drinking tea and doing nothing.”
He wrote that investigators are looking into the theft of donations from his anti-corruption foundation FBK. They are also investigating the founding of the organization, human rights violations and insulting a judge.
The Russian Investigative Committee previously revealed that it had opened investigations focused on FBK and human rights violations against Navalny and his allies.
A prosecutor in February asked the Investigative Committee to see if Navalny’s comments during one of his trials could be considered insulting toward the judge, Reuters reported.
Navalny last month announced that he was ending a hunger strike, which he started in response to complaints regarding access to medical care at the prison facility where he was being held.
The opposition leader was put in jail upon returning to Russia after he was treated for Novichok poisoning in Germany. The poisoning attack has been blamed on Moscow by Navalny and the governments of a number of countries, including the United States.
Moscow, however, has denied any involvement in the incident.
Following the hunger strike, Navalny said he looked like “an awful skeleton” during his first court appearance since ending the protest.
Biden in March slapped additional sanctions on Russia over the use of chemical weapons against dissidents, including Navalny.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.