Thousands protest sentence for Putin critic

Anna Arutunyan | Special for USA TODAY

MOSCOW — Thousands of people protested in the streets Thursday steps away from the Kremlin to express anger over the jailing of an opponent to President Vladimir Putin on what they alleged are false charges to keep him quiet.

Alexei Navalny, a Moscow mayoral candidate who blew the whistle on high-level corruption and mocked the Kremlin, was sentenced to five years in a penal colony on embezzlement charges.

"We were supposed to go to a museum, but the verdict changed that, and now we're here," said Anna Abdelkhabi, a mother of three who turned up at the protest with her children. "Of course, it was obvious that [Navalny would be found guilty], but on the other hand, there was this tiny, tiny bit of hope."

"I expected the verdict," said Stas Starevsky, an information technology specialist, "but what no one wanted to believe happened."

The sentence is the latest in a crackdown on dissent that followed Putin's re-election to a third presidential term in March 2012. The Kremlin has arrested opposition activists and pushed for passage of laws that sharply increased fines for Russians who take part in protests not permitted by the government.

Protesters who found out about the demonstration via Facebook showed up at Manezh Square, just off Red Square, to find the area blocked by police. They gathered on the streets around Manezh Square and near the State Duma, Russia's lower branch of parliament.

Police moved in to disperse protesters before midnight and detained those who refused to leave. More than 100 people were detained, Gazeta.ru reported.

A court in Kirov found Navalny and a co-defendant guilty of embezzling $500,000 worth of timber from the state-owned KirovLes company. The embezzlement, which Navalny denied, was alleged to have taken place in 2009 while he was an adviser to the Kirov regional governor.

Navalny handed his mobile phone and watch to his wife, Yulia, before bailiffs took custody of him.

Navalny wrote about corruption at state-owned companies in which he owned shares, and his blog had hundreds of thousands of readers. With the help of volunteer lawyers, he used property records abroad to identify top officials and lawmakers who own undeclared foreign assets and hold foreign citizenship.

Navalny called the dominant United Russia party "the party of crooks and thieves," and he targeted a wide circle of Putin loyalists, from members of parliament to state bankers. He chronicled all the promises Putin failed to deliver on.

When charges of fraud in the 2011 parliamentary elections led to massive protests, Navalny became a leader of the movement. He announced his candidacy to run for mayor of Moscow in an election in September.

If Navalny's verdict comes into force before the election date, he will be forced by law to step down from the race. Amnesty International condemned the trial as politically motivated. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States was "deeply disappointed" in the verdict.

Others didn't buy the idea that Navalny was railroaded by Putin-controlled courts.

"He deserved it," said Tatyana Krainskaya, a Moscow resident. "Whatever he did, that's what he deserved. He stole the timber, that's clear."

Pro-Kremlin analysts and politicians denied that the case was politically motivated.

"The verdict against Navalny is a direct warning to our 'fifth column,'" Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the nationalist LDPR party, posted on his Twitter. "That's the path for all who are connected to the West and work against Russia."

Contributing: The Associated Press