Alexei Navalny ‘deliberately moved to be arrested’, claims Putin

Navalny, Putin's most ardent political foe, was given a 2 1/2-year prison term for violating the terms of a suspended sentence from a 2014 embezzlement conviction.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says opposition leader Alexei Navalny got what he deserved when he was handed a prison sentence. Navalny, Putin's most ardent political foe, was arrested in January upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin — an accusation that Russian officials reject. In February, Navalny was given a 2 1/2-year prison term for violating the terms of a suspended sentence from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that he dismissed as politically motivated. Speaking Wednesday after a summit with US President Joe Biden in Geneva, Putin said Navalny received his due punishment for violating the terms of his probation, adding that he was aware that he was facing a prison sentence when he returned to Russia.