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Russian Court Orders Putin Critic Navalny Held for 30 Days

Charles Maynes

   MOSCOW - A Russian court on Monday sentenced opposition leader Alexei
   Navalny to 30 days in a Moscow prison over parole violations, setting
   the stage for a later trial that could send the Kremlin's most vocal
   critic to prison for several years.

   The court ruling came less than a day after Navalny was detained upon
   arrival of his flight from Germany to a Moscow airport, ending a
   lengthy recuperation abroad after a poisoning attack in Siberia last
   August.

   Navalny insists Russia's security services, with backing from longtime
   President Vladimir Putin, were behind the assassination attempt that
   involved the use of a strain of the Soviet-era military nerve agent
   Novichok.

   Independent media investigations have detailed extensive state
   surveillance of Navalny in the days and weeks leading up to the attack.

   Putin has acknowledged his government's tracking of the opposition
   figurebut insisted Navalny is too politically insignificant for the
   state to want him dead.

   Pop-up justice

   The circumstances surrounding Tuesday's legal proceedings were highly
   unusual by Russian standards.

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