Meanwhile in #Russia, Navalny charged with embezzlement.

[maxomai]

navalny is being prosecuted for embezzlement in what looks like, and smells like, an attempt on Putin's part to censor an outspoken opponent of his administration.

Quoting the NYT:

Accelerating the Kremlin’s campaign against the country’s fledgling opposition, Russian investigators charged the blogger and anticorruption activist Aleksei Navalny on Tuesday with embezzlement, a crime that carries a sentence of up to 10 years. A previous case against him based on the same events was closed this spring in Kirov by prosecutors who said they had not found evidence of wrongdoing.

Chances are the prosecution will make their case - they almost always do, apparently, whether they have one or not - and that Navalny will get seven years. And Putin will silence a voice of dissent, again.

Of course, such a thing could never happen here, could it Mr. Siegelman?