Russian authorities announced a new criminal charge against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Wednesday, the latest move in a crackdown ahead of September's parliamentary election that could add as much as three years to his prison term.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic critic, is serving a 2-1/2-year sentence for parole violations he calls trumped up. He was arrested after flying back from Germany where he had recovered from a nerve agent poisoning.
The Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a statement that Navalny had been charged with creating an organisation that"infringes on the personality and rights of citizens", a crime punishable by up to three years in jail. The opposition politician's allies who post on social media under the name Team Navalny described the accusation as"the latest meaningless charge".
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