Vadim Ostanin, the former head of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s campaign organization was imprisoned for nine years for participating in an “extremist community,” Navalny’s team said on Monday.
Vadim Ostanin, who had handled Navalny’s local headquarters, had taken out merely legal political work, Navalny’s team said via Telegram. It added that Ostanin was also found guilty following involvement in a non-profit group “whose movement concerns brutality against citizens.”
Ostanin was captured in December 2021 and was kept in Moscow before moved to Barnaul.
Ostanin wrote in a letter published by Navalny’s team that upon my arrival in Barnaul from Moscow, without reason, I was put in an isolated cell, about six square meters, in a basement with a window wrapped with debris.
He added that the cell was filled with ankle-deep water about a week later including there were spiders, ants, and rats.
Ostanin was forced by investigators to accept his guild but he denied it, Navalny’s team wrote.
Navalny, who is best known as Putin’s critic, has been sentenced for 11-1/2 years for fraud but he said that he was captured just to silence him. Last week Russian state prosecutors asked a court to prison him for another 20 years in a new criminal trial for charges including extremism.
While Liliya Chanysheva, another campaigner of Navalny, was sentenced to 7-1/2 years for extremism.
