The new sentence follows a year-long crackdown by Putin on Navalny's supporters, other opposition activists and independent journalists in which authorities appear eager to stifle all dissent.

Navalny's close associates have faced criminal charges and left the country, and his group's political infrastructure — an anti-corruption foundation and a nationwide network of regional offices — has been destroyed after being labeled an extremist organization.

The 45-year-old Navalny, who in 2020 survived a poisoning with a nerve agent that he blames on the Kremlin, is already serving 2½ years in a penal colony east of Moscow for a parole violation. The new trial was held in a makeshift courtroom at the facility.

In a Facebook post by his team shortly after the sentence, the usually sardonic Navalny said: "My space flight is taking a bit longer than expected."