President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic has been handed a fresh prison term, which could keep him behind bars for another two decades.
Russian politician Alexei Navalny was sentenced by a court to 19 years in jail on Friday after being found guilty of extremism charges relating to the activities of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
He is already serving a nine-year term for a number of charges that he claims are politically motivated.
Since rising to prominence as an opposition figure in the early 2000s, Navalny has previously been convicted of defying government officials, embezzlement, fraud, parole violations and contempt of court.
The foundation he set up in 2011 has sought to discredit Putin and his associates through well-produced online investigative documentaries that claim to expose their opulent lifestyles.
His persistent online campaigning has gained him a network of loyal followers both in and outside Russia.
It has also seen him repeatedly jailed, barred from running for political office and most famously poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent in 2020.
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Here we look at how the biggest thorn in the Kremlin’s side got to where he is now.
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2:38
Navalny appears in court
Ukrainian heritage
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Alexei Navalny was born to factory owners in a village west of Moscow called Butyn in 1976, but grew up in the town of Obninsk, around 60 miles southwest of the Russian capital.
He is Ukrainian on his paternal side and spent summers with his Ukrainian grandmother in the town near Chernobyl where his family are from.
Navalny, now 47, cites the mistreatment of locals after the 1986 nuclear disaster as one of the reasons he first sought to take on the Moscow regime.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Navalny graduated with a law degree from Moscow’s Peoples’ Friendship University in 1998 before gaining a second in economics in 2001.
It was around this time that Vladimir Putin rose to power supported by a circle of oligarchs that bought up state-owned companies and sponsored his United Russia party.
Image: Vladimr Putin
Anti-corruption foundation
To begin with, Navalny expressed nationalist and anti-immigrant views. His focus on government corruption has largely clouded earlier comments about Muslims in Russia, but in 2021 Amnesty International retracted his ‘prisoner of conscious’ status after he failed to distance himself from them.
He joined the liberal Yabloko opposition party in 2000 but was expelled for “nationalist activities” in 2007.
While working as a lawyer in the early 2000s, Navalny started blogging, with the initial aim of protesting against rampant overdevelopment in Moscow.
As the years went by and Putin’s grip on power tightened, his campaigns honed in on corruption of state-run organisations such as gas and oil giants Gazprom and Rosneft.
He bought small shares in the companies along with some state-owned banks so he could ask awkward questions about their funding at AGMs.
In 2010 he founded RosPil, an anti-corruption project run by lawyers that monitored the spending of state-run organisations and enabled them to bring several cases of suspected violations to court.
A year later in 2011 he established his main Anti-Corruption Foundation, which now has millions of followers worldwide through its various social media channels.
In December that year following widespread reports Russia’s parliamentary elections had been rigged, thousands gathered in Moscow to contest the result.
Navalny was the first of around 300 people to be arrested. He was jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”.
With Putin re-elected and Navalny gaining notoriety, charges against the opposition leader began to stack up. One of the first in 2012 was for embezzlement of the state-owned timber company Kirovles.
Image: In court in Moscow. Pic: AP
Mayor of Moscow bid
In 2013 he ran to be mayor of Moscow, coming second with 27% of the vote and receiving around 97.3 million rubles (£2.3m) in campaign funding.
In a separate case involving the Russian subsidiary of French cosmetics company Yves Rocher, Navalny was placed under house arrest and banned from using the internet in 2014. His team continued to update his blog for him.
Eventually he was handed a three-and-a-half year prison suspended prison sentence – but his brother Oleg was jailed.
Image: Appearing in one of his YouTube videos
In late-2015 FBK’s first long-form investigation was released. The YouTube documentary ‘Chaika’ accused then-Russian prosecutor General Yury Chaika of corruption and ties to a notorious criminal group – and received 26 million views.
A year later Navalny announced his intention to run in the 2018 presidential elections, but he was eventually barred from standing over the outcome of the Kirovles embezzlement case, bringing condemnation from the EU and wider international community.
Image: Holding a blank piece of paper against the glass wall of the dock in court
Another YouTube documentary, this time on former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev and his alleged empire of palaces, was released by Navalny and his team in March 2017, racking up seven million views in its first week.
It triggered rallies throughout Russia, subsequent arrests, and Navalny being jailed for organising unauthorised demonstrations.
At one protest, he was attacked with disinfectant by a group of unknown assailants, which damaged his right eye.
Image: Putin’s Black Sea Palace from one of Navalny’s documentaries. Pic: YouTube/Alexei Navalny
Novichok poisoning
It was only three years ago that Navalny’s fight against Putin hit headlines beyond Russia.
On 20 August 2020, he was travelling back to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk, where he had been working with local activists, when he fell gravely ill on the plane.
The pilot made an emergency landing in nearby Omsk and Navalny received emergency hospital treatment.
Image: In hospital in Germany with wife Yulia and his two children
Image: The hospital in Omsk, Siberia where he received treatment in 2020
After wide-ranging tests, numerous German medics confirmed he had been poisoned with novichok – the same Soviet-era nerve agent used to poison former KGB agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018.
His recovery took five months, with his wife Yulia, daughter Dasha and son Zakhar, by his bedside.
Despite the risk of arrest, Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021 where he was immediately detained for allegedly violating the terms of his suspended sentence from the Yves Rocher case.
Image: Police detain a protester in Moscow with a ‘Freedom for Alexei Navalny’ placard
Fresh wave of anti-Putin protests
News of his arrest triggered some of the biggest protests in Russia since Putin’s rise to power and resulted in thousands of demonstrators being arrested themselves.
Navalny was sentenced to two-and-a-half years for the parole violation, but as before, his team provided updates on him through his Twitter and other social media accounts.
Among them was news of a three-week hunger strike, which Navalny said was due to sleep deprivation and being refused medical treatment.
Image: Appearing from prison via videolink. Pic: AP
In June 2021 a Moscow court outlawed his foundation and conducted a series of raids aimed at shutting down its network. Some team members were forced to flee Russia.
Following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Navalny used his social media posts and court appearances to protest against the war. At one hearing he described it as “stupid” and “built on lies”.
A month later at short notice he was brought back to court and handed another nine years for embezzlement and contempt of court before being transferred to a maximum-security prison in Vladimir, western Russia.
Image: Graffiti of him in St Petersburg
This hasn’t stopped him and his team relaunching the anti-corruption movement and filing lawsuits over his treatment in prison, which he claims has seen him forced to listen to one of Putin speeches on repeat for 100 days in a row.
Despite his team’s concerns about his health and that he may be being slowly poisoned behind bars, Navalny remains defiant, claiming his death would only further fuel the protest movement.
And in spite of his latest sentence, many in Russia view him as a Nelson Mandela-style figure, who they hope will be released from prison to take over as president when Putin falls.
A documentary about him, which reveals him tricking a chemical weapons expert into seemingly confessing to poisoning his underwear with Novichok, won an Oscar earlier this year.
Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, after US and Ukrainian officials said they would meet for a third day of talks aimed at bringing the war to an end.
The two sides said they had made progress on a security framework for post-war Ukraine, but that any “real progress toward any agreement” will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”
Russia launched 653 drones and 51 missiles in its attack on Ukraine, triggering air raid alerts across the country, Ukraine’s air force said.
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3:31
Giving up territory ‘unacceptable’ – Ukraine’s military chief
Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralised 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.
At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko said.
Russia conducted a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator Ukrenergo said on Instagram.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
The plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. It is not in service, but needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel in order to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Image: Russia struke a train station in the city of Fastiv. Pics: Reuters
Zelenskyy condemns ‘meaningless’ strikes
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strikes as “meaningless” from a military point of view.
He said energy facilities were the main targets, but a drone strike had “burned down” a train station in the city of Fastiv, in the Kyiv region.
“The Russians’ goal is to hurt millions of Ukrainians, and they have sunk so low that they are launching missiles at peaceful cities on St. Nicholas Day,” he said.
“That is why additional pressure is needed. Sanctions must work, and so must our air defence, which means we must continue to support those who defend our lives.”
Ukraine strikes oil refinery
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Ukrainian forces had struck Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refinery, while Russian Telegram news channel Astra shared footage appearing to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery.
Over the last few months, Ukraine has used long-range drones to target Russian refineries in an attempt to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to continue the war.
Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple Ukraine’s power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in winter, which Ukrainian officials call “weaponising” the cold.
On Monday, Mr Zelenskyy will meet Sir Keir Starmer in London to discuss the ongoing negotiations mediated by the US, along with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Negotiations on a lasting ceasefire deal for Gaza are at a “critical moment”, the prime minister of Qatar, which has played a key role in brokering the deal, has said.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman said a definitive ceasefire could only happen with a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the besieged enclave.
The first stage of a ceasefire deal was agreed in October, but violence in Gaza has not stopped. On Saturday alone, seven people were reportedly killed.
Palestinian local health authorities said the victims were from Beit Lahiya, Jabalia and Zeitoun in northern Gaza and included a 70-year-old woman who was killed by a drone strike.
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2:07
What is the UN-approved Trump peace plan for Gaza?
The Israeli military said that in two separate incidents on Saturday, forces deployed in northern Gaza behind the so-called yellow line of withdrawal agreed in the ceasefire had fired on Palestinian militants who crossed the line, killing three.
The military was unaware of any drone strike, a spokesperson said.
The long-sought ceasefire – and the second one after a first deal fell apart earlier this year – began on 11 October after Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan.
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Despite accusations by both sides of violations, talks on the next phase of the ceasefire deal began almost two weeks ago, with Turkish, Qatari and Egyptian officials meeting in Cairo to discuss the second part of the agreement, including deploying a stabilisation force and body to govern Gaza and oversee reconstruction.
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2:59
Fragile Gaza ceasefire persists as anti-Hamas leader killed
“We are at a critical moment. It’s not yet there. So what we have just done is a pause,” PM al-Thani said during a panel discussion at the Doha Forum conference in Qatar.
“We cannot consider it yet a ceasefire. A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of the Israeli forces – (until) there is stability back in Gaza, people can go in and out – which is not the case today.”
On Thursday, an Israeli delegation held talks in Cairo with mediators on the return of the body of the last hostage held in Gaza, which would complete an initial part of Mr Trump’s plan to bring an end to the two-year war.
Since the truce started, Hamas has returned all 20 living hostages and 27 bodies in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners.
At least 50 people, including 33 children, have been killed in southern Sudan after a drone attack by paramilitary forces hit a nursery in South Kordofan state.
Sudan Doctors’ Network says paramedics on the scene in the town of Kalogi were also targeted by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a “second unexpected attack”.
Rights group Emergency Lawyers reported a “third civilian site” near the previous two attacks was also targeted.
The death toll is expected to be higher, but communication blackouts have made it difficult to confirm the full number of casualties.
Emergency Lawyers says the strikes are a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians, especially children, and vital civilian infrastructure.”
UNICEF has urged both parties to stop the attacks immediately and allow safe access for humanitarian aid.
“Killing children in their school is a horrific violation of children’s rights,” said UNICEF representative for Sudan Sheldon Yett.
“Children should never pay the price of conflict.”
The attack on the nursery is among the latest in the two-year conflict between the RSF and Sudan’s military, where the focus has recently shifted to the oil-rich Kordofan states.
Image: A photo released by UNICEF shows displaced children and families from al-Fashir. (Mohammed Jammal/UNICEF via AP)
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the last few weeks as fighting shifted from Darfur, following the RSF’s violent takeover of the city of Al Fashir, which was marked with civilians being executed, rapes, sexual assaults and other atrocities.
Thousands managed to escape the violence, but thousands more are trapped or feared killed.
Image: Grab from RSF social media channels in Al Fashir, Sudan
Meanwhile, Sudanese military aerial strikes last weekend killed at least 48 people, mostly civilians, in South Kordofan.
The RSF has also accused the military of carrying out a drone strike on the border with Chad, posting a video showing billowing black smoke.
The Associated Press has been unable to verify the video or whether there were any casualties, while Sudan’s military also hasn’t commented.
The RSF and the Sudanese military have been fighting for power over the country since 2023, which has seen more than 40,000 people killed, according to the World Health Organisation, although the real death toll is expected to be higher. 12 million people have been displaced.