STRASBOURG, France — The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russian authorities’ arrests of opposition leader Alexei Navalny were politically driven.

The European court found Thursday that Russian authorities violated Navalny’s rights in arrests from 2012 to 2014, and that two of them were expressly aimed at “suppressing political pluralism.”

It ordered Russia to pay Navalny 63,000 euros ($71,000) in damages, and to fix legislation to “take due regard of the fundamental importance of the right to peaceful assembly.”

The ruling is final and binding on Russia as a member of the Council of Europe, the continent’s human rights watchdog.

Navalny has faced fraud charges viewed as political retribution for investigating corruption and leading anti-government protests. The Kremlin dismisses Navalny as a trouble-maker with no political backing.