A Russian court jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday in a ruling which the opposition politician blamed on what he called President Vladimir Putin's hatred and fear of him.
The Moscow court handed Navalny a three-and-a-half-year sentence but his lawyer said the anti-corruption blogger would serve only two years and eight months in jail because of time he has already spent under house arrest.
The widely anticipated ruling, which followed nationwide protests calling for Navalny's release, is likely to further strain relations with the West, which is likely to consider imposing sanctions on Russia over its handling of the case.
The United States, Britain and Germany urged Moscow to immediately free Navalny, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Washington would coordinate closely with allies to hold Russia accountable.
A Navalny ally had urged the West before the hearing to hit Putin's inner circle with personal sanctions.
Navalny's supporters urged people to gather in central Moscow though riot police had already taken up position. His lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.
Navalny, one of Putin's most prominent critics, was arrested on Jan. 17 for alleged parole violations after returning from Germany where he had been recovering from being poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent.
Navalny said Russian state security agents had put the poison in his underpants, something the Kremlin denied. It has suggested that Navalny is a CIA asset, a charge he rejects, and has told the West to stay out of its domestic affairs.
After his arrest, Navalny released a YouTube video making allegations about Putin's wealth that was viewed over 100 million times. The Kremlin said it was false.
Tuesday's hearing focused on Navalny's alleged parole violations over a suspended sentence in a 2014 embezzlement case Navalny says was trumped up.
But Navalny, in a fiery speech to the court, alleged he was jailed because of Putin's concerns about him as a political rival, a suggestion the Kremlin has laughed off, referring to Navalny as a troublesome blogger without wide popular support.
Putin, 68, has dominated Russian politics since 2000 and could rule until 2036 under constitutional changes approved in a referendum last year.
"Someone did not want me to take a single step on my country’s territory as a free man. And we know who and we know why - the hatred and fear of one man, living in a bunker, whom I offended by surviving when he tried to have me killed,” Navalny, 44, told the court from inside a glass cage.
Outside the court, Reuters reporters saw riot police detain around 70 of Navalny's supporters who had gathered to offer their support. The OVD-Info monitoring group reported 370 arrests.
'PUTIN THE UNDERWEAR POISONER'
Navalny used Tuesday's hearing to try to frame Putin's place in history.
"(Putin's) only method is killing people. However much he pretends to be a great geo-politician, he'll go down in history as a poisoner. There was Alexander the Liberator, Yaroslav the Wise, and Putin the Underwear Poisoner," said Navalny.
Putin, who the Kremlin said was not following the Navalny hearing and was busy with affairs of state, said in December that reports the Russian state had poisoned Navalny were part of a U.S.-backed plot to try to discredit him.
Putin said Moscow would have finished the job if it had wanted Navalny dead.
Tuesday's hearing was the result of a request from Moscow's state prison authority which has accused Navalny of violating the terms of a suspended three and a half year prison sentence for embezzlement.
Navalny said the conviction, which was criticized by the European Court of Human Rights at the time, was politically motivated.
A prison service representative told the court that Navalny had violated public order many times since being handed the suspended sentence and had systematically failed to report in.
Navalny told the court he had been unable to report to the prison service at the end of last year because he was recovering in Germany from being poisoned. The prison service said its complaints pre-dated his poisoning and that Navalny had in any case been well enough to meet journalists after being discharged from a Berlin hospital in September.
Navalny, already serving a 30-day detention sentence in connection with the same case, told the court: "On what grounds are you saying you didn't know where I was? You're misleading the court."
Supporters have staged two straight weekends of nationwide protests demanding he be freed, despite a massive show of police force, the threat of arrest, bitter cold and the pandemic.
While the trigger for those protests was Navalny's arrest, some protesters say they have also taken to the streets to vent their frustration over declining living standards.