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Aleksei Navalny Verdict Protests -- Liveblog

RFE/RL is live-blogging a mass unsanctioned protest taking place near the Kremlin this evening after a Kirov court sentenced Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny to five years in a penal colony. The decision has been widely condemned as politically motivated.

Here's a quick summary of today's events
  • Aleksei Navalny and co-defendant Pytor Ofitserov are convicted by a Kirov court of embezzlement and sentenced to five and four years in jail, respectively.
  • The final post from Navalny's Twitter account after the verdict reminds supporters to gather in protest at Manezh Square in Moscow on July 18.
  • Authorities close off Manezh Square and Red Square, with hundreds of people already gathering nearby.
  • Navalny's lawyer urges Muscovites to boycott local elections in September.
  • U.S. and EU officials cast doubt on the trial and cite political motives, echoing similar accusations from rights groups.
18:28 18.7.2013
VIA RFE/RL Russian, about 200 people came out to picket in the city of Samara -- about 1,000 km east of Moscow.
18:44 18.7.2013
On the State Duma.

18:57 18.7.2013
"Femen," the radical feminist group, held a protest outside the Theatre of Russian drama.
18:58 18.7.2013
19:00 18.7.2013
As the sun sets RFE/RL Russian Service reports, "The crackdown begins."

19:09 18.7.2013
19:20 18.7.2013
People trying to avoid police by heading off onto side-streets.

19:20 18.7.2013
Bored?

19:35 18.7.2013
From RFE/RL correspondent Richard Solash in Washington:
More U.S. senators have chimed in to protest the Navalny verdict. Senator Roger Wicker says the conviction "proves that Russia is not committed to upholding basic human rights." "These types of cruelties isolate Russia on the global stage and could have grave consequences for the future of Europe."

Senator Chris Murphy says "Kremlin itself made clear" that charges were politically motivated," Navalny "should be released immediately and allowed to continue his campaign for Mayor of Moscow.”

The senators who have issued statements today on Navalny were all supportive -- in the case of Cardin and McCain, instrumental -- in passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Act.
19:38 18.7.2013
View from the paddywagon

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