Opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s campaign manager Leonid Volkov has been sentenced to 30 days behind bars for tweeting a video.
Navalny has been barred from presidential elections in March due to embezzlement charges his supporters say are politically motivated. The anti-corruption campaigner was briefly detained on Thursday and charged with violating public assembly rules. He was released the same day pending a court hearing.
A Moscow court has found Volkov guilty of calling on people to participate in a protest calling for a boycott of the election on Jan. 28 in Moscow by tweeting a video of Navalny being detained in central Moscow and sharing a link to a live broacast of the protest, the Interfax news agency reports.
The tweet reads: The court ruling actually says that I organized a rally on Tverskaya on Jan. 28 by tweeting a video of Navalny being detained on Tverskaya on Jan. 28! Still waiting for the sentence (I’m still betting on 30 days, otherwise why bother?)
Volkov is now due to be released after presidential elections on March 18.
The tweet reads: Arrest for 30 days, see, I was right. I’ll see you on Mar. 24. Don’t miss me.
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