Vladimir Regional Court has refused prosecutors’ bid to stiffen the jail terms of three lawyers who once defended Alexei Navalny, leaving intact sentences handed down in January. Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin were found guilty of “participation in an extremist community” in relation to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK in Russian) and given sentences of five and a half, five, and three and a half years respectively. Prosecutors had asked the court to add a few months to each term, arguing the original punishments were too lenient, but judges declined to do so. The groundbreaking case against the lawyers revolves around the fact that the lawyers passed Navalny’s letters from prison to his supporters, thereby allowing him “to continue to perform the functions of leader and head of an extremist community”.
Three of Alexei Navalny’s lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Sergunin, were arrested on October 13, 2023, a few months before the opposition leader’s murder in prison, accused of “participating in an extremist community”. Investigators alleged that the lawyers “used their status” to regularly pass letters from the opposition leader to his associates, allowing Navalny to “continue to carry out the functions of a leader and head of an extremist community” from behind bars.
Sergunin had pleaded guilty Then, the lawyers were moved from Moscow to Vladimir region where Navalny’s first prison after his return to Russia in January 2021 was located.
In January 2025, Vadim Kobzev (now 42) was sentenced to five and a half years in a penal colony, Alexei Liptser (now 38) to five years, and Igor Sergunin (now 46) to three and a half years.
The prosecution had asked the court to add a few months to each term, arguing the original punishments were too lenient. They also asked judges to strip away mitigating factors cited at the original sentencing for Kobzev and Liptser, specifically the court’s finding about their family’s difficult financial circumstances.
The crime of letters. Russian court upholds prison terms for Navalny’s former lawyers
