'They hated her': Russia jails Navalny ally to 7.5 years

An ally of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced Wednesday to seven and a half years in prison on "extremism" charges as Moscow cracks down on dissent during its military campaign in Ukraine.

Lilia Chanysheva, 41, was sentenced in the city of Ufa, the capital of the central Bashkortostan Republic, where she headed Navalny's regional headquarters.

Ufa's Kirovsk district court said it found her guilty of creating an "extremist organization" and sentenced her to seven years and six months in a penal colony.

Chanysheva's sentencing came as Russia's Ukraine offensive drags into its second year, with most Kremlin critics in exile or behind bars.

From prison, Navalny has called her one of his best political coordinators and said authorities saw her as a major threat, saying that one investigator told him she was considered a "Navalny in a skirt".

"I should be free because my work is completely legal," a smiling Chanysheva said after the verdict, in a video released by Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.

Chanysheva had worked for major companies including Deloitte before joining Navalny's team in 2017.

She was detained in November 2021 and was the first Navalny associate to stand trial on charges of creating an "extremist organization".

She is also one of the few high-profile women in the Russian opposition that is dominated by men.

Navalny's team said Chanysheva's long prison sentence was the authorities' punishment for her "legal political activities, for investigations".

Prosecutors had requested a 12-year prison term.

Speaking in court in May, she asked the judge to release her. "If you jail me for 12 years, I won't have time to give birth to a child," she said at the time. "Give me a chance to become a mom."

Navalny said in March that Chanysheva swapped "a successful career" for a chance to work as head of his political office in one of Russia's most corrupt regions, where she ruffled many feathers.

"They hated her terribly," he wrote this year, referring to the authorities.

Navalny, 47, is serving a nine-year sentence on embezzlement and other charges that supporters say is punishment for challenging President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny is set to go on trial in a new "extremism" case, and faces at least 30 years in prison.