The Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was unexpectedly released from custody on Friday, one day after thousands of Russians marched on the Kremlin to protest against a decision to send him to jail. The move appeared to signal the Kremlin's concern over the revived protests, or elite infighting over how to deal with a man who has gained increasing popularity through his opposition to the regime of Vladimir Putin.
One day after sentencing him to five years in jail on charges of embezzlement, which Navalny's supporters called politically motivated, a judge in the provincial city of Kirov approved a rare prosecution request to release him from police custody during the appeal process. Navalny hugged his wife upon his release and was due to arrive in Moscow from Kirov, 500 miles away, on Saturday morning. He thanked his supporters, thousands of whom flooded the streets of Moscow and other big cities on Thursday night. Around 200 people were detained in Moscow after an hours-long protest that centred on Manezh Square, just outside the Kremlin's walls.
"Thank you to everyone, that with your decisiveness you forced them to free me and Petya," Navalny wrote in a blog post, referring to his co-defendant Petr Ofitserov, sentenced to four years in prison and also released from custody on Friday. "It doesn't matter if this is temporary or not," Navalny wrote. "People decide their own fate."
Navalny plans to appeal the verdict, which found him guilty of embezzling 16m roubles from a timber firm while advising the Kirov region's governor in 2009. The trial and sentencing were widely seen as a means of silencing Navalny, who has won a large following by exposing corruption inside the Russian government. He is the most popular opposition leader to have emerged from mass street protests that shook Moscow last year as Putin prepared to return to the presidency following four years as prime minister. The US, UK and EU had all expressed concern over the verdict.
Navalny's release will now allow him to continue to take part in the race for Moscow mayor, with elections due to be held in early September. He had to suspend his candidacy in the wake of the verdict. But some observers fear the surprise move was a further means of discrediting Navalny, allowing him to take part in the Moscow mayoral vote, before losing and being sent to prison as both a convicted criminal and a political failure.
Navalny has won growing support among Russia's urban, internet-connected youth. Yet a recent poll by the Levada Centre, an independent pollster, said his support in the mayoral election stood at only 4%.
"Everything has fallen into place," wrote Sergei Parkhomenko, a popular journalist and opposition activist. "There are indeed two groups: one, quite powerful, but still subordinate, has its clear reasoning that Navalny should take part in elections," he wrote. "They will be ready to risk watching with horror day by day as Navalny's rating grows." The second, Parkhomenko wrote, was more powerful and sought to rule by fear. "They dream of confusing us and ruining us," Parkhomenko wrote. "The most important thing is not to lose strength."
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