NAVALNY SENTENCED While his sentence was being read, he drew a 'heart' on the glass for his wife

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - A Russian court today sentenced opposition leader Alexei Navalny to more than two and a half years in prison on charges of violating a suspended sentence while he was recovering in Germany from poisoning with a nerve agent.

The Moscow court today delivered a verdict based on the request of the Russian authorities to convert Navalny's suspended sentence from December 2014 into a prison sentence, because he did not report to the competent authority on time.

While the judge was reading the verdict, Navalny turned to his wife Yulia and drew a heart on the glass enclosure.

In 2014, Navalny was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, suspended for six years, for fraud and money laundering. He rejects these charges as politically motivated.

He served part of the three-and-a-half-year sentence under house arrest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponent was arrested on January 17, immediately after returning from Germany, where he had been recovering for five months from poisoning with a nerve agent, which he blames on the Kremlin.

Russian authorities deny involvement in Navalny's poisoning and have refused to open a criminal investigation, citing a lack of evidence, even though laboratories in Germany, France, and Sweden have determined that he was exposed to the poison "novichok", developed in the former Soviet Union.

Navalny, known for publishing numerous reports on corruption in Putin's Russia, criticized today's trial as a futile attempt by the Kremlin to intimidate millions of Russians.