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Russia: Nation's Top Blogger Headed to Prison?

Categories: Eastern & Central Europe, Russia, Breaking News, Citizen Media, Digital Activism, Law, Protest, RuNet Echo

The criminal investigation targeting Russia's most prominent oppositionist blogger, Alexey Navalny, is heating up. Viacheslav Opalev, the former director of a logging firm in Kirov, has confessed [1] [ru] to participating in the embezzlement of 16 million rubles (over half a million U.S. dollars), and named Navalny as the scheme's mastermind. Navalny's lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, says [2] [ru] the process against his client and the guilty verdict to follow are now a mere formality. Writing on his LiveJournal blog [3] [ru], Novaya Gazeta reporter Irek Murtazin is calling on Russians to fill the streets to protest the persecution of Navalny, who has maintained his innocence since the criminal allegations first arose.