Navalny campaigner sentenced to jail for extremism in Russia
Lilia Chanysheva, the former campaign chief for jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny in Ufa, has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for "creating an extremist organization." Chanysheva called the charges politically motivated, and prosecutors had requested a 12-year prison sentence. Navalny himself is already serving sentences totalling eleven and a half years in a penal colony on fraud and other charges. Human rights groups and Western governments view Navalny as a political prisoner, but the Kremlin denies trying to kill him and often declines to comment on the imprisonment of Navalny and his supporters.