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Opposition activist Navalny receives 5-year suspended sentence in fraud case

Navalny said that he will protest his conviction in the Kirovles case in the Kirov regional court

Alexey Navalny Sergei Brovko/TASS

Alexey Navalny

© Sergei Brovko/TASS

KIROV, February 8. /TASS/. A court in Kirov has handed a suspended five-year prison sentence to Aleksey Navalny after finding him guilty of embezzlement in the Kirovles case.

The other defendant in the retried case, Pyotr Ofitserov, was sentenced to four years in prison. His sentence was suspended, too. Both Navalny and Ofitserov will have to pay 500,000-ruble fines.

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Navalny said that he will protest the court's ruling.

"We disagree with this sentence. It is an exact replica of the sentence that followed the first trial. We will appeal the sentence," Navalny said in the courtroom.

"We do not recognize this sentence. It will be overturned. I will participate in elections. Right now I am taking part in an election campaign," he said. "This sentence violates the European Court’s verdict. That verdict has not been enforced. We are expecting the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to react and to overturn the sentence passed today," lawyer Vadim Kobzev said.

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Military operation in Ukraine

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Trump's new presidency will be fundamentally different from his first — expert in the US

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Press review: US lets Kiev use anti-personnel mines and Iran may halt uranium enrichment

Top stories from the Russian press on Thursday, November 21st

Russian embassy warns UK about dangers of calling for Moscow’s ‘defeat’

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Ukrainian frontline may 'collapse' under onslaught of Russian forces — BBC

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Ukraine has around 50 ATACMS missiles — The Times

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Russian troops advance in areas north, south of Velikaya Novoselka in DPR — official

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US missile defense base in Poland long among Russian army’s targets — Foreign Ministry

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Japanese lawmaker praises Putin's restraint amid decision to strike deep into Russia

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell confirmed that the US administration had lifted restrictions for US-supplied missiles to be used for strikes up to 300 kilometers inside Russia

Ukrainian special services assemble unit for sabotage attacks in Kupyansk — official

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ATACMS missiles unlikely to keep Kiev from losing conflict — American expert

Daniel Davis also noted that "continuing to ignore reality" would only increase "the ultimate cost of losing" the conflict for Ukraine

Moscow-Washington hotline not in use now — Kremlin spokesman

Dmitry Peskov added that there have been no contacts via this new channel lately

Kremlin condemns report on Storm Shadow missile use against Russian targets as escalation

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NATO enters conflict, Russia has every right to attack its targets now — expert

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More desperation in Zelensky's appeals, ex-NATO commander says

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Weapons supplied to Ukraine cannot reach Russian territory, Spanish defense minister says

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Russia’s reaction to Austrian OMV’s failure to pay for gas justified — MFA

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Press review: Russian air defenses can down Western missiles as EU conducts live exercise

Top stories from the Russian press on Tuesday, November 19th

NATO supports Ukraine not out of charity but for its own strategic interests — deputy head

Boris Ruge argued that NATO now has hundreds of thousands of troops that could be deployed to the alliance's eastern flank or elsewhere within ten days

Russian troops raise flag in central Kurakhovo in Donetsk region — politician

Russian army units have advanced much farther into the city’s northern part, in particular, along the southern bank of the Kurakhovo reservoir, Vladimir Rogov specified

Russia to use revenues from frozen assets of Western investors — Finance Minister

Tit-for-tat measures will be implemented after receiving information about unfriendly actions of Western countries, Anton Siluanov noted

Zelensky to have no input if Russia, US negotiate, ex-Prime Minister says

Previously, Elon Musk said on the X social platform, commenting on Zelensky’s supposition that the United States cannot force Ukraine to "sit and listen" at the negotiating table because Ukraine is an independent country, that Zelensky has an "amazing sense of humor"