The United States, France, Germany and Britain all criticized the sentences.
“This is yet another example of the Kremlin’s harassment of defense lawyers in an effort to undermine human rights, destroy the rule of law, and suppress dissent,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
France’s Foreign Ministry called the court’s decision “another act of intimidation against the entire legal profession”, while Germany said “even those defending others before the law face harsh persecution”. Is”.
Britain’s Foreign Minister David Lammy called on the Kremlin to “release all political prisoners”.
Lawyers handed down the sentence after a closed-door hearing in Petrushki — about 115 kilometers (70 miles) east of Moscow — near Pokrov prison, where Navalny was held before being moved to a remote colony above the Arctic Circle. .
“We are being sued for spreading Navalny’s ideas to other people,” Kobzev said in court last week, the Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported.
A court statement said he had “used his position as a lawyer when meeting with convicted Navalny… to exchange information between Navalny and members of the extremist community, including those wanted and hidden outside the Russian Federation.” To ensure regular transfer”.