MOSCOW: Russia yesterday charged popular protest leader Alexei Navalny with embezzlement in a revived case that could see one of President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics jailed for 10 years.
The Investigative Committee said in a statement that Navalny would also be barred from leaving Moscow during the probe into the opposition leader's role as an unofficial adviser in a small deal struck by regional officials in 2009.
The charismatic 36-year-old corporate lawyer by profession looked pale as he came out from closed hearings during which the charges against him were expanded substantially to include some of Russia's gravest business crimes.
"Something absolutely absurd and very strange has happened because they have completely changed the story behind the charge," the prominent anti-corruption blogger told reporters waiting outside the gates.
"I cannot imagine how the investigators can prove this. But probably they will prove it."
Navalny seems likely to be jailed for a substantial term, his lawyer said.
"It all looks as if Navalny is going to get a jail term of seven years or so," lawyer Vadim Kobzev told the RAPSI legal news agency.
Navalny became a cult figure in Russia's growing Internet community for his campaign against state corruption before helping to spearhead the wave of protests that rocked the Kremlin in the winter months.
He has emerged as one of the most prominent leaders of a splintered protest movement that has faced a crackdown from authorities since Putin's disputed third presidential term began in May.
Several top protest organisers are being investigated on various charges. The latest case against Navalny concerns a small business deal that was struck by a regional government he advised on an informal basis three years ago.
The incident had been probed and dropped in the past. But Russia's powerful Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin personally demanded a review of the case earlier this month in comments broadcast on state television.
Investigators had originally accused Navalny of causing the regional budget a loss of 1.3 million rubles ($40,000) by advising a local state-owned timber firm to sign a deal with another small company in 2009-2010.
Navalny was not accused of profiting personally in the case but of giving poor counsel to the local governor.
