Prominent Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was convicted on Wednesday of embezzlement and given a five-year suspended sentence in a ruling that threatens his bid to challenge President Vladimir Putin in next year’s presidential poll.
The judge in the court in the provincial city of Kirov found the Kremlin critic and anti-corruption whistleblower guilty on a charge that the 40-year-old lawyer insists is aimed at knocking him out of the vote.
Navalny in December announced his intention to run for President in 2018, while Putin has yet to confirm his expected participation. The fierce Kremlin critic insisted he would keep on campaigning despite Russian law banning people serving such a sentence from standing for office.