Russian journalists jailed for 5-1/2 years for alleged extremist ties to Navalny

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Four Russian journalists were sentenced by a Moscow court to 5-1/2 years each in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of working for the banned organisation of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Antonina Favorskaya, Sergei Karelin, Konstantin Gabov and Artem Kriger have been on trial behind closed doors since October on charges, which they deny, of belonging to an extremist group.

Prosecutors said they created materials for the YouTube channel of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which is banned in Russia as a "foreign agent" and an extremist organization.

Russia has intensified pressure on domestic and foreign reporters since the start of its war in Ukraine. Supporters of the accused journalists said the trial was aimed at intimidating the press and punishing reporters for doing their jobs.

Navalny, the most prominent opponent of President Vladimir Putin, had spent years denouncing corruption in the Russian elite. He died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony last year while serving a long sentence on corruption and extremism charges, which he denied.

Despite claims by Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's wife, that he was murdered, Russia’s investigative committee in 2024 told her it had concluded that Navalny's death was caused by a "combination of diseases".

The Kremlin also has strongly rejected his supporters' accusation that Putin had him murdered. U.S. intelligence agencies later determined Putin likely did not order his death, the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press reported.

Before the sentences were read out, media were allowed briefly to film the accused journalists as they stood in handcuffs behind a glass screen.

"Everything will be fine. I see how the dynamics are developing. I give this regime another year, another year and a half at most," Kriger said.

Karelin said: "I hope my daughter will be proud of me."

Neither the court nor prosecutors responded to requests for comment.

Karelin and Gabov are freelancers who have worked for a variety of news organizations including, respectively, the AP and Reuters.

Favorskaya and Kriger both work for SOTAvision, an independent outlet that has also been designated a foreign agent. Favorskaya recorded the last video of Navalny taking part in a court hearing the day before he died.

"Konstantin Gabov is a freelance journalist who between 2022 and 2024 occasionally contributed to Reuters as a desk producer, editing video and scripting stories assigned to him. We have no evidence that shows the charges against him relate to his freelance work at Reuters," a spokesperson for the Reuters news agency said.

"Reuters is deeply committed to freedom of the press and opposes the imprisonment of any journalist for doing their job. Journalists must be free to report the news in the public interest without fear of harassment or harm, wherever they are."

The Associated Press did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Alexandra Ageeva, the founder of SOTAvision, who is listed by Russia as a foreign agent, said the sentences were expected.

“Huge prison terms were handed down to journalists who were simply doing their jobs. It is terrible,” Ageeva said.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov, Lucy Papachristou and Guy Faulconbridge; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)