Freed Kremlin Critic Navalny Tells Putin: Brace Up For More Opposition

After serving 30 days in jail, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has regained freedom.

Navalny was jailed for urging protests against the exclusion of opposition candidates from upcoming elections in Moscow, the Russian capital.

According to photographs released on Twitter by his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, Navalny emerged from prison smiling.

After his release, the critic said opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and protests against the authorities would only grow.

Navalny’s action by trying to expose what he calls appalling official corruption is a way to garner popular support.

“Now we see that lies and fraud are not enough for them. It’s not enough for them to ban candidates from an election. They deliberately want to arrest dozens and to beat up hundreds… This shows that there is no support for this regime. They feel this and they are afraid,” Navalny told reporters.

“I have no doubt that despite genuine acts of intimidation and terror that are happening now as random people are being arrested that this wave (of protests) will increase, and this regime will seriously regret what it has done,” he said.

Recall that the 43-year-old lawyer and activist was jailed last month after his action.

Navalny came to prominence via his blog hosted by LiveJournal, but later switched to YouTube where he has 2 million subscribers and Twitter where he has more than 2 million followers.

He has used his blog, YouTube and Twitter channels to publish videos and documents about corruption by Russian state officials, to organize political demonstrations, and to promote his campaigns for office.

He has also been active in other media: most notably, in a 2011 radio interview he described Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, as a “party of crooks and thieves”, which soon became a popular epithet. He created the Anti-Corruption Foundation in 2011.

He has also been arrested many times by Russian authorities. He received two suspended sentences for alleged embezzlement in two separate cases, one in July 2013, and another in December 2014, for five-year and 3.5-year terms of imprisonment, respectively.