(2 Feb 2021) Several protesters were detained in both Moscow and St Petersburg on Tuesday after a Moscow court ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 years.
The court found that he violated the terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning which Navalny blamed on the Kremlin - an accusation the Kremlin denies.
Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission.
After the verdict that was announced about 8 p.m., protesters converged on area of central Moscow and gathered on St. Petersburg's main avenue Nevsky Prospekt.
Helmeted riot police grabbed demonstrators and put them in police vehicles.
The ruling came despite massive protests across Russia over the past two weekends and calls from western countries to free the 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner.
The prison sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and politically motivated.
Navalny was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from his five-month recovery in Germany from the attack.
Despite tests by several European labs, Russian authorities said they have no proof he was poisoned.
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