Russian prosecutor sentence Putin-critic Navalny to 13-year

As a fresh trial of Russia's de facto opposition leader and vocal Kremlin-critic, Alexei Navalny, gets underway, the prosecution requested he should be handed a prison sentence of 13 years.

Public prosecutor, Nadezhda Tikhonova, also demanded Navalny be given a fine of 1.2 million roubles (10,800 dollars) for alleged fraud on Tuesday.

Navalny, currently incarcerated in a penal colony in Pokrov, some 100 kilometres east of Moscow, is a fierce critic of Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

His trial has been criticised as politically motivated.

Navalny's team said the prosecution's demands were further evidence of the illegitimate nature of the trial.

"We've said before that Putin wants to keep Navalny in jail forever," said his spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh.

Navalny was accused of misusing funds belonging to his now outlawed anti-corruption foundation, and of insulting a judge.

According to his own team, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

The court earlier declined a request to move the trial to Moscow.

Navalny said in court that this was because those who had ordered the trial were scared that everyone would then be able to see that the accusations against him were false.

Nonetheless, a number of journalists did make the trip to Pokrov, according to daily newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has been critical of Putin in the past.

Yarmysh said Putin was trying to get revenge on Navalny "after he didn't manage to kill him," referring to an assassination attempt made on Navalny in August 2020, when he was poisoned with the chemical nerve agent, Novichok.

The Kremlin has denied any connection to the assassination attempt.

After recovering in Germany, where the country's then Chancellor, Angela Merkel, visited him at Berlin's Charité hospital, Navalny returned to Russia a year ago, only to be arrested on arrival for having violated his parole from a previous conviction by leaving the country for his medical treatment.