Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to five years in jail for theft yesterday, an unexpectedly tough punishment which supporters said proved President Vladimir Putin was a dictator ruling by repression.
Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who led the biggest protests against Putin since he took power in 2000, hugged his wife Yulia and his mother, shook his father’s hand and then passed them his watch before being led him away in handcuffs.
“Shame! Disgrace!” protesters chanted outside the court in Kirov, 900 km northeast of Moscow. Some supporters wept and others could barely hide their shock and anger.
State prosecutors had asked the court to jail Navalny for six years on charges of organising a scheme to steal at least 16 million roubles (€376,625) from a timber firm when he was advising the Kirov region governor in 2009.
But even a five-year sentence means he will not be able to run in the next presidential election in 2018 or for Moscow mayor in September as he had planned. Some political analysts had expected the court to hand down a suspended sentence, to keep Navalny out of prison but rule out any political challenge.
The US and EU expressed concern over the conviction, saying it raised questions about the rule of law in Russia and Putin’s treatment of opponents.
Russian shares fell on concerns the ruling could provoke social unrest, after a case that has led to comparisons with the political “show trials” under Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
In a last message from court, Navalny, 37, referred to Putin as a “toad” who abused Russia’s vast oil revenues to stay in power, and urged his supporters to press on with his campaign.
“Okay, don’t miss me. More important – don’t be idle. The toad will not get off the oil pipeline on its own,” he wrote on Twitter.
Two people were detained in a small protest in Kirov. At least 3,000 gathered near the Kremlin in Moscow and at least 10 people were detained, with police going into the crowd to pluck out people who held up portraits of Navalny. Some motorists honked their horns in support of the protests.
Rallies were also held in St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg in the Urals but no big clashes were reported. Judge Sergei Blinov read the verdict rapidly and without emotion in the packed Kirov courtroom, hardly looking up as he took about three and a half hours to explain his conclusions.
“The court, having examined the case, has established that Navalny organised a crime and ... the theft of property on a particularly large scale,” he said.
Pyotr Ofitserov, Navalny’s co-defendant, was convicted as an accomplice and sentenced to four years in prison.
Navalny, a powerful orator who has accused the authorities of being “swindlers and thieves”, stood in silence with a puzzled expression as he listened to the verdict. He has 10 days to appeal, and his lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, said he would do so.
The head of his campaign staff, Leonid Volkov, said Navalny had told him he would withdraw from the Moscow race if he was jailed, and that Navalny would make a statement about this today.
Navalny denied guilt. He said that the charge against him was politically motivated and that the verdict would be dictated by Putin.