A trial begins for lawyers who once represented the Kremlin's late foe Alexei Navalny

PETUSHKI, Russia (AP) — Three lawyers who once represented the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny went on trial Thursday in Russia, part of the Kremlin’s unrelenting crackdown on dissent that has reached levels unseen since Soviet times.

Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser were arrested in October 2023 on charges of involvement with extremist groups, as Navalny’s networks were deemed by authorities.

The case was widely seen as a way to increase pressure on the opposition to discourage defense lawyers from taking political cases.

At the time, Navalny already was serving a 19-year prison term on several criminal convictions, including extremism. That charge stemmed from a 2021 ruling that outlawed his organizations — the Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of regional offices — as extremist groups.

That ruling, which exposed anyone involved with the organizations to prosecution, was condemned by Kremlin critics as politically motivated and designed to stifle Navalny’s activities.

According to Navalny’s allies, authorities accused the lawyers of using their position to pass information from him to his team.

Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and outspoken opponent of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in 2021 upon his return from Germany, where he was recuperating from a nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He was ordered to serve 2 1/2 years in prison.

After two more trials, his sentence was extended to 19 years. He and his allies said the charges were politically motivated and accused the Kremlin of seeking to jail him for life.

In December 2023, Navalny was moved from a penal colony in the Vladimir region east of Moscow to one above the Arctic Circle, where he died in February at the age of 47 under still-unexplained circumstances. His widow Yulia Navalnaya and members of his team alleged he was killed on orders by the Kremlin. Officials have rejected the accusations.

The trial of the three lawyers, who face up to six years in prison, also is taking place in the Vladimir region, in the town of Petushki, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Moscow. The court refused a request to hold the proceedings in the capital, where the three were held in pre-trial detention.

Russian media and rights activists reported in June that the three were transferred to a detention center in the Vladimir region.

The judge in the Petushki District Court on Thursday ordered the proceedings closed to the public, overruling objections from defense attorneys. Before the session was closed, the three appeared in a defendants’ cage in the courtroom.

Two other Navalny lawyers, Olga Mikhailova and Alexander Fedulov, are on a wanted list but no longer live in Russia. Mikhailova, who had defended him for a decade, said she was charged in absentia with extremism.

For many Russian political prisoners, regular visits from lawyers — especially in remote regions — are a lifeline that keeps their loved ones informed about their well-being, as well as enabling them to push back against abuse by prison officials.

Kobzev, Liptser and Sergunin have been deemed to be political prisoners, according to human rights advocates from Memorial, Russia’s most prominent rights group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. The group demands their immediate release.