Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been sent to a Russian penal colony six months after being poisoned in a nerve agent attack he blames on President Vladimir Putin.
Here is a timeline:
– Sent in coma to Berlin –
The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner is hospitalised on August 20, 2020 in Omsk, Siberia, after losing consciousness on a flight.
Put into a medically induced coma, he is transferred two days later to a hospital in Berlin at his family’s request.
– Novichok –
Berlin says on September 2 that tests carried out by a German army laboratory yielded “unequivocal evidence” that he was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era chemical weapon.
The European Union and NATO demand an investigation.
– Kremlin denial –
Two days later the Kremlin rejects claims that it was behind the poisoning.
On September 7 Navalny emerges from the coma.
– Labs confirm poisoning –
Laboratories in France and Sweden confirm Germany’s findings that Novichok was used.
Putin condemns “unsubstantiated” accusations.
– Putin accused –
Navalny accuses Putin of being behind his poisoning after he is discharged from hospital on September 22.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov calls his claims “groundless and unacceptable”.
– Spooks stung –
Navalny releases a recording in October of him tricking a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agent into confessing that he tried to kill him.
The FSB describes the phone call as a “provocation”.
– Defiant return –
Navalny says he plans to return home despite a threat of jail.
He is arrested and detained on January 17 shortly after landing in Moscow.
But Navalny urges Russians to “take to the streets”.
– ‘Putin’s palace’ –
As he is carted away, Navalny releases a video of his investigation into a lavish Black Sea property he claims is owned by Putin.
It goes viral as Putin denies it is his.
The authorities round up Navalny’s allies.
– Protests and prison –
In late January tens of thousands of demonstrators demand Navalny’s release.
Police detain thousands.
On February 2 Navalny is handed a near three-year prison term.
The West calls for his immediate release.
He urges his supporters to liberate Russia from a “handful of thieves”.
– Diplomatic crisis –
As EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visits Moscow on February 5, the Kremlin expels German, Swedish and Polish diplomats for supporting Navalny.
The three countries expel Russian diplomats in return.
– Rights court weighs in –
The European Court of Human Rights orders Russia to release Navalny “with immediate effect” on February 17. Russia accuses the court of “interference”.
– Appeal denied –
Three days later a Moscow court dismisses Navalny’s appeal, slightly reducing the sentence to two-and-a-half years.
Separately he is convicted of defamation and fined 850,000 rubles (around 9,500 euros).
The EU imposes sanctions on February 22 on four senior Russian officials.
– Penal colony –
The head of Russia’s prison service says Friday that Navalny has been transferred to a penal colony to serve his sentence but does not say where.