Reuters, Moscow :
Russian state prosecutors on Tuesday asked a court to fine Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny 950,000 roubles ($13,000) for slandering a World War Two veteran, a charge he calls politically motivated.
President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic was jailed this month for almost three years for parole violations that he said were trumped up. The West has condemned the case and is discussing possible sanctions on Russia.
The judge said the verdict would be announced on Saturday – the same day that Navalny is due to appeal against his imprisonment.
The 44-year-old anti-corruption activist is accused of defaming a veteran who took part in a promotional video backing constitutional reforms last year. The reform, approved in a referendum, will let Putin run for two more terms in the Kremlin after 2024 if he wants to.
Navalny, who returned to Russia last month from Germany, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal poisoning with a military-grade nerve toxin in Siberia, described the people in the video as traitors and corrupt lackeys.
