Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was handed more than two years in prison on Tuesday. The sentence comes more than five months after he was poisoned in a near-fatal attack he has blamed on President Vladimir Putin.
Here is a timeline:
August 20: Admitted to hospital
The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner is hospitalised in the Siberian city of Omsk after losing consciousness on a flight.
His entourage says he has been poisoned. Russian doctors say they have found “no trace” of poison.
August 22: Transferred to Berlin
Put into a medically induced coma, he is transferred to hospital in Berlin at his family’s request.
September 2: Novichok
Berlin says medical tests carried out by a German army laboratory yielded “unequivocal evidence” that Navalny was poisoned by Novichok, a Soviet-era chemical weapon.
The European Union and NATO demand an investigation.
September 3: Kremlin denial
The Kremlin rejects claims that Moscow was behind the poisoning.
September 7: Out of coma
Navalny emerges from the coma and is responsive.
September 14: Labs confirm poisoning
Laboratories in France and Sweden confirm Germany’s findings that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok.
Putin condemns “unsubstantiated” accusations.
September 22: Out of hospital
On September 22 Navalny is discharged and the Berlin hospital says a “complete recovery is possible”. The Kremlin says Navalny is welcome to return to Moscow. Russia froze his assets while he was in a coma.
October 1: Putin accused
Navalny accuses Putin of being behind his poisoning. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov accuses Navalny of working for the CIA and calls his claims “groundless and unacceptable”.
December 21: Spooks stung
Navalny releases a recording of him tricking a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agent on the phone into confessing that he tried to kill him.
The FSB describes the phone call as a “provocation”.
January 17: Going home
In mid-January Navalny says he plans to return home despite a threat of jail. He is arrested shortly after landing in Moscow on January 17. The next day a court orders that he be held for 30 days.
Navalny denounces a “mockery of justice” and urges Russians to “take to the streets”.
January 19: ‘Putin’s palace’
On January 19, Navalny releases an investigation, which goes viral, into a lavish Black Sea property he claims is owned by Putin. Putin say later he does not own it.
In the following days the authorities round up Navalny’s allies and warn against protests.
January 23-31: Protests, arrests
On January 23 and 31, tens of thousands of demonstrators demand Navalny’s release.
Thousands are detained.
February 2: Prison
On February 2, Navalny is given more than two years in prison. His supporters call for a protest. The West calls for his immediate release.
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