WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department on Tuesday that it “strongly condemns” what it called Russia’s “orchestration of a sham trial” against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after a court found him guilty of large-scale fraud and contempt of court, a move likely to extend Navalny’s jail time by years.
Sate Department spokesperson Ned Price said the “disturbing” decision was another example of a widening crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression that he said Russia was carrying out to hide its war in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; Editing by Leslie Adler)
