Reuters) - A Russian court jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday, ignoring the West in a ruling the opposition politician blamed on President Vladimir Putin’s personal hatred and fear of him.
The Moscow court handed Navalny a three-and-a-half-year
sentence, but his lawyer said the anti-corruption blogger would actually serve
two years and eight months in jail because of time already spent under house
arrest.
His lawyers said they would appeal. The decision, which
followed nationwide protests calling for Navalny’s release, will further strain
relations with the West, which is considering imposing sanctions on Russia over
its handling of the case.
The United States, Britain, Germany and the EU urged Moscow
to immediately free Navalny, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying
Washington would coordinate closely with allies to hold Russia accountable.
Russia is already under numerous Western sanctions however,
and analysts say the West’s options for more pressure are limited. A Navalny
ally had urged the West before the hearing to hit Putin’s inner circle with
personal sanctions.
Russia has suggested that Navalny is a CIA asset, a charge
he rejects, and has told the West to stay out of its domestic affairs.
Navalny, one of Putin’s most prominent critics, was
arrested on Jan. 17 for alleged parole violations after returning from Germany
where he had been recovering from being poisoned with a military-grade nerve
agent.
Navalny said Russian state security agents had put the
poison in his underpants, something the Kremlin denied. He used Tuesday’s
hearing to try to frame Putin’s place in history.
“(Putin’s) only method is killing people. However much he
pretends to be a great geo-politician, he’ll go down in history as a poisoner.
There was Alexander the Liberator, Yaroslav the Wise, and Putin the Underwear
Poisoner,” said Navalny.
His supporters, on hearing the ruling, encouraged people to
gather in central Moscow though riot police had already taken up position. The
Moscow metro shut down three central stations.
Reuters reporters saw hundreds of protesters and the police
detain some of them. Some of them chanted, “Putin is a thief!” and “Putin is a
poisoner!”
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