Court bars Russian opposition leader from presidential race

MOSCOW — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was convicted Wednesday in a retrial of a 2013 fraud case and given a suspended sentence, a ruling that bars him from running for president next year and appears to reflect the Kremlin’s reluctance to let President Vladimir Putin’s most charismatic foe into the field.

“What we have just seen is a telegram of sorts from the Kremlin, saying that they consider me, my team and people whose views I represent too dangerous to be allowed into the election campaign,” he said.

Navalny was the driving force behind massive protests of Putin’s rule in 2011-12 in Moscow, electrifying crowds with chants of “We are the power!” and saying at one point that the protesters were numerous enough to take the Kremlin.

The 2013 guilty verdict in the fraud case was overturned by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial, prompting the Russian Supreme Court to order a retrial.

The 70-year old ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the 64-year old liberal Yabloko party leader Grigory Yavlinsky, who ran unsuccessfully in the past elections, both have voiced their intention to run, but their involvement would hardly encourage interest in the campaign.