Court hands Kremlin foe Navalny 5-year suspended sentence

A Russian court today handed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a five-year suspended sentence that could end his bid to challenge President Vladimir Putin in 2018 polls.

The judge at a court in the provincial city of Kirov found Navalny guilty of embezzlement, giving him a five-year suspended sentence and his co-defendant a four-year suspended sentence in a retrial that repeated the outcome of a 2013 trial. Each was also fined 500,000 rubles (USD 8,500).