RUSSIA FREES LEADER OF OPPOSITION
>> MOSCOW: Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who organised a recent wave of large anti-Kremlin protests across Russia, was released on Friday after serving a 25-day sentence in prison.
Navalny, the leading critic of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and the Kremlin, was convicted of conducting an unlawful rally by leading demonstrators into an area where they had no permit to gather.
The opposition leader has said he wants to compete in the presidential election in March, but he is technically ineligible to run because of an embezzlement conviction that Navalny and independent observers have described as being politically motivated.
In an apparent attempt to avoid news media attention, police released Navalny from a prison in central Moscow early in the morning, instead of from the detention facility where he had been held — and where numerous journalists were waiting to speak with him.
Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, posted a photograph of him on Twitter, in which he is shaking hands with his colleagues in his Moscow headquarters.
In a video released later on Friday, Navalny promised more rallies and called on his followers to double their efforts.
“We have broken this wall of censorship and lies that Mr Putin was building for the last 18 years and we have managed to relay our ideas to millions,” Navalny said in the video. “The Kremlin and regional governments made the fight against our anti-corruption campaign and my presidential campaign their main priority.”
He added: “We will certainly come out for new rallies even though there will surely be attempts to ban them.”
On Thursday, law enforcement officers raided Navalny’s campaign offices in Moscow and throughout Russia, according to Leonid Volkov, the campaign manager.
Thousands of T-shirts, newspapers and other materials were confiscated on the eve of a series of campaign events that Navalny’s team planned in Moscow. Cargo companies refused to release campaign materials that were sent to the Russian regions.