MOSCOW, September 28 (RAPSI) – A criminal case over creation of an extremist community has been launched against Alexey Navalny and his allies Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov, RAPSI has learnt from the Investigative Committee’s press service.

According to investigators, not later than 2014, Navalny acting as a founder of his own foundation (banned and liquidated in Russia as extremist) created an extremist community and led it seeking to dismantle the Russian statehood. Volkov and Zhdanov joined the illegal activity within the prescribed period, the statement reads.

Navalny is now serving sentence in a penal colony in Pokrov, a town in the Vladimir Region.

In February, a Moscow court ordered Navalny to be jailed for 3.5 years in the Ives Rocher embezzlement case. In early March, the ruling was upheld. The blogger is to serve about 2.5 years behind bars. He is serving sentence in the Vladimir Region.