A vocal Kremlin critic faces up to two years in prison for defying an order to take down a video investigation alleging high-level government corruption.
Ivan Zhdanov, the head of opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption group, was charged in August with failing to delete the bombshell 2017 video implicating then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in illicit property deals.
“Moscow prosecutors served me the indictment today. I’m now officially a defendant,” Zhdanov tweeted Wednesday.
In the viral video, Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) accused Medvedev of channeling bribes through nonprofits linked to close friends, including billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
A Moscow court ordered Navalny to retract his claim that Medvedev’s former classmate had received an illicit donation worth $85 million from Usmanov.
Usmanov won a libel suit against Navalny in a separate case, prompting the FBK to publish retractions in late 2017.
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