Choice to jail Kremlin critic prone to spur additional protests and deepen a rift between Western powers and Russia.
A Russian court docket has sentenced Alexey Navalny to jail over alleged parole violations in an embezzlement case relationship again to 2014, which the Kremlin opponent argues is politically motivated.
Tuesday’s ruling on the Simonovsky District Court docket in Moscow is prone to gasoline extra demonstrations in help of Navalny and deepen a rift between Russia and Western powers demanding the 44-year-old’s launch.
No different data was instantly obtainable.
The choice comes two weeks after Navalny was arrested on January 17 upon returning to Moscow from Berlin, the place he spent 5 months recovering from an alleged nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities reject the accusation.
Talking from a glass cage within the courtroom throughout his listening to, Navalny attributed his arrest to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “concern and hatred,” saying the Russian chief will go all the way down to historical past as a “poisoner.”
“I’ve deeply offended him just by surviving the assassination try that he ordered,” he mentioned.
“The intention of that listening to is to scare a large number of individuals,” Navalny mentioned. “You possibly can’t jail hundreds of thousands. You possibly can’t jail your complete nation.”
Russian police detained 311 individuals in Moscow forward of the listening to, the OVD-Data protest monitoring group mentioned.
Riot police had been deployed in massive numbers outdoors the court docket after Navalny’s allies known as on the opposition politician’s supporters to assemble outdoors in help.
Navalny’s detention has sparked nationwide protests towards Putin. Tens of hundreds of individuals defied a heavy police presence to fill the streets in cities and cities throughout Russia on Sunday for the second week operating to demand the Kremlin critic’s launch.
Western powers have in the meantime known as on Russia to free Navalny, with some threatening recent sanctions.
The Kremlin has dismissed considerations from the worldwide neighborhood, saying the case is a home subject.
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