Russian court annuls ruling against opposition leader Alexei Navalny

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Russia's Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a lower court's decision to hand Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a suspended five year sentence, raising supporters' hopes he might be able to run in the next presidential election.

A lower court had found Navalny and an associate guilty of embezzling funds from a timber firm in the Kirov region and in 2013 sentenced him to five years in jail, a sentence that was later suspended on appeal.

Navalny said the original ruling was politically-motivated and designed to prevent him from taking part in elections. Russia faces a presidential election in 2018 when Vladimir Putin is widely expected to run for a fourth term.

Navalny's supporters want him to run against Putin, though opinion polls show he has substantially less backing among voters than the president.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-navalny-idUSKBN13B146

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WORLD NEWS | Wed Nov 16, 2016 | 5:44am EST

[cstanleytech]

1. I hope he is very careful as Putin has shown a willingness to use assassination in the past

as in the case of Alexander Litvinenko.