Russian court rejects Alexei Navalny’s sentence appeal, he blasts Putin for ‘stupid war’ in Ukraine

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had his nine-year prison sentence appeal rejected by a Russian court. During the hearing, he lambasted President Vladimir for starting a “stupid war” in Ukraine

A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from opposition leader Alexei Navalny against a nine-year prison sentence he is serving for large-scale fraud and contempt of court, charges which he denies.

Navalny, by far Russia's most prominent opposition figure, was handed a nine-year jail term in March for fraud and contempt of court, on top of 2-1/2 years he is already serving. He denies all the charges against him and says they were fabricated to thwart his political ambitions.

Navalny lambasted President Vladimir Putin during the live court hearing, casting him as a madman who had started a “stupid war” in Ukraine based on lies.

“This is a stupid war which your Putin started,” Navalny, 45, told an appeal court in Moscow via video link from a corrective penal colony. “This war was built on lies.”

Repeatedly interrupted by the judge, Navalny cast the prosecution’s “facts” as “lies”—and compared them to the lies he said Putin, Russia’s paramount leader since the last day of 1999, had used to begin the February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

“What do you want to achieve—do you want short-term control, to fight with future generations, fight for the future of Russia?” Navalny asked the court. “You will all suffer historic defeat.”

Navalny said Putin’s Russia was run by thieves and criminals who had become enemies of the Russian people.