The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to five years in prison in a politically motivated trial that threatens to bring mass unrest on to the streets of Moscow…
The verdict – that he embezzled 16m roubles from a timber firm while advising the governor of Russia’s Kirov region – is widely seen as a means of silencing him.
The charismatic 37-year-old said goodbye to his supporters via his popular Twitter account: “OK. Don’t get bored here without me. And most importantly – don’t dawdle, the frog won’t jump from the oil pipes itself.”
Navalny has highlighted the vast corruption rotting the Russian government. On Tuesday, just two days before the verdict, he released an investigation into alleged corruption at Russian Railways, one of Russia’s largest state-run firms, headed by Putin’s close ally Vladimir Yakunin. He has dubbed Putin Russia’s “main thief”.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member