Alexei Navalny, opposition leader, freed by Russia; he had organized anti-Kremlin protests

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who plans to run against President Vladimir Putin in 2018, has been released from prison after spending 25 days behind bars for organizing nationwide anti-corruption rallies without Moscow’s permission.

Mr. Navalny, 41, was released Friday nearly a month after a Moscow court convicted him of illegally planning a slew of anti-Kremlin protests that peppered Russia on June 12 and resulted in police detaining over 1,000 protesters from St. Petersburg to Siberia.

Authorities arrested Mr. Navalny on the morning of last month’s protests and convicted him the following day of violating Russia’s law against organizing unsanctioned rallies. He was subsequently ordered to spend 30 days in a Russian prison, but a Moscow court later reduced his sentence by a sixth.

“I am very glad to be back in the office,” Mr. Navalny said following his release Friday. “We will, of course, not bend under any pressure, and will soon convince everyone of that.”

Mr. Navalny intends to challenge Mr. Putin when the Russian president runs for re-election next March, but Moscow maintains that an embezzlement conviction has rendered him ineligible. He’s called the conviction politically motivated and vowed Friday to continue campaigning against Mr. Putin’s exiting regime.

“We have broken this wall of censorship and lies that Mr. Putin was building for the last 18 years, and we have managed to relay our ideas to millions,” Mr. Navalny said in the video clip released Friday. “The Kremlin and regional governments made the fight against our anti-corruption campaign and my presidential campaign their main priority.

“We will certainly come out for new rallies even though there will surely be attempts to ban them,” he added.

Mr. Navalny’s supporters plan to distribute about 5 million copies of a pre-election newspaper Sunday, The Moscow Times reported, notwithstanding ongoing efforts from Russian authorities targeting the opposition leader’s run. Police raided Mr. Navalny’s election headquarters in Moscow on Thursday evening several hours before his release and reportedly confiscated campaign materials, according to the newspaper.

“We’ll go ahead anyway, and we’ll work as usual,” opposition ally Leonid Volkov told Reuters.