Russia jails critic amid demand for his release

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 15 days behind bars and fined Monday after staging the biggest anti-corruption protests in years, an act branded a “provocation” by the Kremlin.

The US and the European Union have voiced deep concern after Navalny and more than 1,000 others were detained in the Moscow protest on Sunday, with the US state department calling the arrests an “affront to democracy”.

A Moscow district court ordered Navalny to serve 15 days in jail after finding him guilty of disobeying police orders. He was also fined 20,000 rubles ($350) for organising an unsanctioned protest.

The lawyer-turnedactivist, 40, who has announced plans to run for president next year, called Sunday’s protests after publishing a report accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling a property empire through a shadowy network of nonprofit organisations.

“The authorities are being accused of multimillion theft, but they remain silent,” a haggardlooking Navalny said in court, insisting the protests were legal.

“More than 1,000 people were arrested yesterday but it is impossible to arrest millions,” he said.

Navalny’s lawyer Olga Mikhailova told reporters that his defence team would appeal the rulings.

About 7,000 to 8,000 people demonstrated in Moscow on Sunday, according to police figures, making it one of the biggest unauthorised rallies in Vladimir Putin’s 17 years in power as president or prime minister.

The Kremlin called the protest “a provocation and a lie”, and claimed minors were promised “financial rewards” to participate.

Demonstrations were held not just in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in a number of provincial cities where protests are rarely seen.

The European Union urged Russia to release the demonstrators “without delay” and expressed concern that police action had “prevented the exercise of basic freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly”. — AFP