Prosecutors in Moscow opened a criminal investigation into the activities of anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny. The investigative committee said that the activist was suspected of "inflicting material damage by means of deceit" when, as an adviser to a regional governor, he urged the head of a timber company called Kirovles to close a deal which allegedly lost the business 1.3m roubles ($40,000). While there is no suggestion that Navalny benefited financially, if convicted he could face up to five years in jail. Navalny said that the accusation was a fabrication by the security services to punish him for allegations that $4bn has been siphoned off from oil firm Transneft and of murky dealings at state bank VTB. "We'll see what happens," Navalny commented in his blog. "Even the most Basmanny court in the world could hardly bring a verdict on such rubbish, clumsily made up by policemen." Basmanny is the court which began the prosecution of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, jailed for nine years in 2005.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/10/russian-blogger-alexei-navalny
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1637728
http://navalny.livejournal.com/583560.html (Navalny's blog + video)
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