(FILES) In this file photo taken on February 20, 2021 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands inside a glass cell during a court hearing at the Babushkinsky district court in Moscow. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
Russia’s top opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, survived a dramatic poisoning attack in 2020 that he blamed on President Vladimir Putin only to be sent to a penal colony when he recovered.
On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights, which has called for his release, condemned Moscow for failing to investigate his poisoning.
AFP looks back at the main developments in the affair.
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Put into a medically induced coma, Navalny, then aged 44, is transferred two days later to a Berlin hospital at his family’s request.
He accuses Putin of being behind his poisoning.
The Kremlin calls his claims “groundless and unacceptable”.
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Tens of thousands of people demonstrate across the country for his release.
Washington joins the round of sanctions on senior Russian officials.
In June 2021, Putin signs a law banning people working for what are considered extremist organisations from standing in elections, in a move apparently targeted at Navalny’s supporters.
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Moscow in January 2022 puts Navalny and several of his allies on its terrorist database.
He is transferred to a prison around 250 kilometres east of Moscow, from where he regularly denounces the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Navalny, who turned 47 this week, calls the charges “absurd”.
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