WASHINGTON, February 16. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Tuesday that he was worried by new accusations against blogger Alexey Navalny.

"I'm troubled by dubious new charges against Aleksey Navalny," the US top diplomat wrote on Twitter. According to Blinken, "Mr. Navalny was already issued a politically motivated sentence last year." The secretary of state asserted that "Navalny and his associates are targeted for their work to shine a light on official corruption."

Moscow’s Lefortovo Court started hearing Navalny’s case during a visiting session at a penitentiary facility in the Vladimir Region near Moscow, where the blogger is currently serving his sentence.

Navalny, who received two suspended sentences over the Yves Rocher case, was declared wanted for numerous violations of the terms of his suspended sentence. On January 17, 2021, he was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport having arrived from Berlin. On February 2, 2021, Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court converted Alexey Navalny’s suspended sentence to 3 years and 6 months in a medium-security prison.