Four Russian journalists have been convicted of extremism in a closed-door trial and jailed for working with an anti-corruption group founded in 2011 by the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, a ruling drew widespread condemnation from rights groups.
The case highlighted the perils of working as an independent journalist in Russia amid the Kremlin’s intensified crackdown on freedom of expression since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The journalists — Antonina Favorskaya, Konstantin Gabov, Sergei Karelin and Artyom Kriger — were charged for associating with the Anti-Corruption Fund, which Mr. Navalny founded and the Kremlin outlawed, labeling it an extremist group. A Moscow court on Tuesday convicted the four of extremism and sentenced each to five and a half years in prison, Russian state news agencies reported. The journalists had pleaded not guilty, saying they were merely doing their jobs.
Scores of prominent independent journalists fled Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine as the Kremlin clamped down harder on news and free speech than at any time in President Vladimir V. Putin’s more than two decades in power. Some journalists and activists who criticized the Kremlin and the war in Ukraine have been given jail sentences as long as 25 years.
The four journalists were among the few reporters who had remained in Russia and covered sensitive topics including that of Mr. Navalny, a longstanding Kremlin critic who died in an Arctic prison colony February 2024.
Ms. Favorskaya, who worked for a small independent news outlet, was accused of filming footage later used by Mr. Navalny’s associates on their media platforms. A rare reporter to attend court hearings for Mr. Navalny shortly before his death, Ms. Favorskaya shot the last known video of him addressing court via a video link from prison the day before he died. She was arrested in March 2024.
The Russian authorities later arrested the three other journalists and put all four on trial together. Mr. Kriger, one of the defendants, said he and others were accused of filming interviews on the street in Russia for Mr. Navalny’s YouTube channel.
Supporters greeted the four journalists with applause as they were led out of the courtroom after the ruling on Tuesday, according to the independent outlet Mediazona and several Russian bloggers allowed in for the sentencing.
The Committee to Protect Journalists in a statement said the verdict was “blatant testimony to Russian authorities’ profound contempt for press freedom.”
Allies of Mr. Navalny have refused to comment on any potential connection the journalists may have had to the Anti-Corruption Fund — but condemned the trial as part of a broader Kremlin crackdown on Mr. Navalny’s supporters and on civil society.
Leonid Volkov, Mr. Navalny’s former chief of staff, said on social media that the four defendants had been jailed “for the legal and peaceful profession of a journalist,” and called for solidarity with all political prisoners.
Mr. Kriger, the youngest defendant at age 24, expressed hope as he was led out of the courtroom that justice would be served.
“Everything is going to be alright, guys,” he said, according to the independent news outlet Mediazona, “Don’t despair: Sooner or later, all of this will be over, and those who delivered the verdict for me will definitely go to jail themselves.”
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