Alexei Navalny jailed for more than two years

Western governments have expressed outrage at the jailing of the Kremlin critic and protests have erupted again in Russia.

A Moscow court has jailed the Kremlin’s most prominent critic Alexei Navalny for nearly three years, triggering fierce condemnation from the West and calls for his immediate release.

The court’s decision on Tuesday night to turn a 2014 suspended sentence into real jail time means Mr Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner who accuses the Kremlin of poisoning him last year, will serve a lengthy prison term for the first time.

Britain, France, Germany, the US and the EU denounced the ruling, as Moscow accused the West of interfering in its affairs.

Mr Navalny’s supporters called for more demonstrations over the decision, after thousands joined nationwide protests against his arrest over the last two weekends.

People protest against the jailing of Alexei Navalny. Picture: AFP.

The case is presenting one of the most serious challenges to the Kremlin in years, with some in the West calling for new sanctions against Russia.

Judge Natalya Repnikova ­ordered a suspended 3½-year sentence Mr Navalny received on fraud charges in 2014 to be changed to time in a penal colony.

He was accused of violating parole conditions by refusing to check in with prison officials and was arrested when he flew back to Moscow on January 17 from Germany, where he spent months recovering from the poisoning.

Mr Navalny said it was impossible to make the appointments while abroad, but the judge said he had skipped meetings prior to his poisoning with the ­Soviet-era nerve agent novichok.

He has spent time under house arrest after the 2014 conviction — which was denounced by the European Court of Human Rights — and Judge Repnikova said that would count as time served.

His lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, said he would now serve around two years and eight months in prison.

His legal team plans to appeal, she added, and Mr Navalny was expected to stay in detention in Moscow during that process.

Mr Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund immediately called for a protest in central Moscow.

Several hundred of his supporters marched through the streets and police in riot gear detained dozens across the city centre. Videos released by local media showed officers hitting protesters with batons and chasing them through the streets.

In a fiery courtroom speech ahead of the ruling, Mr Navalny accused President Vladimir Putin of trying to intimidate his critics. “They are putting one person behind bars to scare millions,” he said.

And he mocked Mr Putin over allegations the novichok used to poison him had been placed in his underwear, telling the court that Mr Putin “will go down in history as a poisoner of underpants”.

After the ruling, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for Mr Navalny’s release, warning that Washington and its allies would “hold Russia accountable for ­failing to uphold the rights of its citizens”.

French President Emmanuel Macron also called for his release, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel labelling the decision “far removed from any rule of law”, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it “pure cowardice”.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, due to visit Moscow later this week, said it “runs counter to Russia’s international commitments on rule of law and fundamental freedoms”.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the Western reaction as “disconnected from reality”. She said: “There is no need to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.”

Law enforcement officers stand guard in front of the Bolshoi theatre during a protest against a court decision to jail Alexei Navalny. Picture: AFP.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in Moscow and other Russian cities over the last two weekends to call for Mr Navalny’s release, prompting a huge police clampdown that saw several thousand people arrested.

Police detained more than 1050 protests on Tuesday alone, mostly in Moscow, according to monitoring group OVD-Info.

“Under this regime, life is getting harder and harder, we have no future … no one has a future. It will only get worse,” Alexander, a 27-year-old engineer, said near Red Square.

AFP