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                    Putin Critic Navalny Defies House Arrest

   by Reuters

   Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Monday he would no longer comply
   with the terms of his house arrest and had cut off his monitoring tag.

   Navalny, 38, who led mass protests against Putin three years ago, was
   handed a suspended sentence on December 30 after being found guilty of
   embezzling money in a trial that led to his brother being jailed on
   similar charges.

   He was placed under house arrest almost a year ago during the
   investigation but said in a blog that he was perhaps the only person in
   Russian legal history to be kept under house arrest after being
   sentenced.

   Navalny said he should have been released after sentencing in late
   December, but instead was being held, pending publication of the
   verdict on January 15 - a situation that even the police did not know
   how to deal with.

   "It is stupid to brag, but I am the first person in the history of
   Russian courts to be sitting under house arrest after the verdict," he
   said on his blog.

   "I refuse to comply with the requirements of my illegal detention under
   house arrest. The bracelet with some effort has been cut off with
   kitchen scissors," Navalny wrote, alongside a picture of the bracelet,
   or tag, that monitors his movements.

   He said he had no plans to travel far.

   Sentenced

   When Navalny was handed his suspended sentence, his brother Oleg, 31,
   was jailed for three and a half years.

   They had faced charges of stealing 30 million rubles, around $500,000
   at the current exchange rate, from two firms including an affiliate of
   French cosmetics company Yves Rocher between 2008 and 2012.

   Opposition figures said jailing Alexei Navalny risked new protests so
   he was being punished through his brother instead. The Kremlin denies
   influencing court decisions.

   After the sentencing, Alexei Navalny broke house arrest to join a rally
   of hundreds of his supporters outside the Kremlin but was swiftly
   detained and driven home by police.

   Alexei Navalny led the mass demonstrations in the winter of 2011-12
   that at times brought tens of thousands of people on to the streets of
   Moscow and several other big Russian cities to protest against
   corruption and alleged election fraud.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/putin-critic-navalny-defies-house-arrest/2586283.html