Russian opposition leader freed after finishing jail term
RUSSIAN opposition leader Alexei Navalny walked free yesterday after a 20-day jail term for organising protests against President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny, who has declared his intention to stand for president in 2018, was released at a secret location in Moscow to evade media attention.
“Hi. I’m out,” Navalny wrote on Instagram, posting a picture of himself on a street. A photographer working for his team later posted photographs of him meeting colleagues at the office of his anticorruption foundation.
During Navalny’s time behind bars, the Kremlin race he hopes to contest has heated up, with TV star Ksenia Sobchak throwing in her hat.
Navalny said he was ready to work and was due to meet supporters yesterday in the city of Astrakhan, 1 300km southeast of Moscow, at a rally.
Earlier yesterday, supporters of Navalny hung a banner from a bridge close to the Kremlin reading: “It’s time to get rid of Putin and time to elect Navalny.” The charismatic 41-year-old lawyer informally launched a presidential bid in December last year and has since opened campaign offices and held rallies countrywide.
Earlier this year he served sentences of 15 days and 25 days for organising unauthorised anti-Putin protests. He has faced a constant stream of official bans on public meetings, as well as violent attacks on him and his supporters.
The presidential race has yet to officially begin and Putin has not yet declared his participation in the March 2018 election. However, he is widely expected to seek and win a six-year term that would extend his rule till 2024.
Sobchak has vowed to back Navalny’s bid to be included in the race – as electoral authorities say his suspended sentence for fraud makes him ineligible to stand until 2028. However, many liberals see her as a Kremlin-backed spoiler candidate brought in to give the race a veneer of opposition.
Putin worked closely with her late father Anatoly Sobchak when he was a liberal Saint Petersburg mayor, and has acknowledged his importance as a mentor. — AFP