A Moscow court sent Alexey Navalny to prison for more than two and a half years on Tuesday, closing a heated hearing in which the Russian opposition leader ridiculed claims he broke his parole conditions while recovering from poisoning, and denounced President Vladimir Putin as "Putin the poisoner."
The decision inflamed anger among Navalny's supporters. Vast crowds of people took to the streets in central Moscow following the sentencing and were met with a show of force, as hundreds of riot police combed the vicinity of the courthouse street by street and hustled protesters into waiting buses.
More than 1,000 people have been detained across Russia in connection to Tuesday's protests, according to independent monitoring organization OVD-Info.
Navalny's allies had already called for another round of nationwide demonstrations this weekend.
