BARNAUL, Russia -- The prosecution has asked a court in Barnaul, the capital of the Siberian region of Altai Krai, to convict and sentence Vadim Ostanin, the former leader of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's team in the region, to 11 years in prison.
Ostanin, 46, was arrested in December 2021 and charged with organizing an extremist community and propagating the activities of a noncommercial organization that encroaches on citizens' privacy and rights.
The charges are related to the activities of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
The Memorial human rights group has recognized Ostanin as a political prisoner.
Ostanin led units of Navalny's network of regional campaign groups in Barnaul and Biisk until his team disbanded them after a Moscow prosecutor went to court to have them branded "extremist."
The request was accepted, effectively outlawing the group.
Last week, another former regional leader of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's team, Lilia Chanysheva, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on the same charges in Russia's Republic ff Bashkortostan.
Navalny, who suffered a near-fatal poisoning in August 2020 that he blames on Russian security operatives acting at the behest of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on January 17, 2021, and later handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole during his convalescence abroad. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in Navalny's poisoning.
The original conviction is widely regarded as a trumped-up, politically motivated case.
In March last year, Navalny was handed a nine-year prison term on charges of contempt and embezzlement through fraud that he and his supporters have repeatedly rejected as politically motivated.
Navalny's is currently on another trial on extremism charges that he and his supporters reject, calling them politically motivated. He faces an additional 30 years in prison if found guilty.
Several of the opposition leader and Kremlin critic's associates have been charged with establishing an extremist group. Many of Navalny's close associates fled the country amid pressure from the Russian authorities.