display
Alexej Navalny has to serve several years in prison in a prison camp.
His lawyers failed in a court in Moscow on Saturday in an attempt to overturn a sentence passed earlier in the month.
The judge said he did not allow the complaint.
The sentence of three and a half years in a prison camp remains in place.
The actual term of imprisonment is likely to be shorter, however, because Nawalny's lawyers assume that several months of house arrest and earlier imprisonment periods will be credited to him.
His team had criticized the process as politically motivated.
Just hours later, Navalny was sentenced to a heavy fine.
For allegedly insulting a World War II veteran, the Moscow court fined the opposition politician in the amount of 850,000 rubles (around 9,400 euros).
That's roughly double the average annual salary in Russia.
display
Last year, Navalny described protagonists of a propaganda video on the controversial constitutional amendment as “traitors”.
The veteran also appeared in it.
The judges previously accused the 44-year-old Kremlin opponent of violating probation conditions in previous criminal proceedings while he was recovering from an attack with the neurotoxin Novichok in Germany.
Navalny once again described the accusation that he wanted to hide from the judiciary as "absurd" on Saturday.
He returned to Russia voluntarily at the end of January.
“The whole world knew where I was.” The verdict had also caused severe criticism internationally.
Already in the penal camp next week?
The European Court of Human Rights only asked Russia on Wednesday to release Navalny immediately from custody.
The 2017 Human Rights Court ruled the judgment in this earlier trial as manifestly inappropriate.
Moscow rejected the request as interference in internal affairs.
Alexei Navalny behind a pane of glass during a hearing in the Babuskinsky District Court
display
The opposition leader could be transferred to a prison camp in the coming week, the state agency Ria Novosti reported.
An exact day was initially not mentioned.
Meanwhile, the human rights organization Amnesty International wants to hand over a petition to the Kremlin to release Navalny.
In addition, almost 200,000 signatures have been collected in several countries around the world, it said.
Navalny was persecuted for peaceful political activities in the fight against corruption and for enforcing his right to freedom of expression.
The opposition leader collapsed on August 20 while on a domestic flight.
He was first taken to a hospital in Siberia.
Two days later he was flown to Berlin for treatment.
According to studies by several laboratories, he was poisoned with the warfare agent Novichok.
Russia, on the other hand, sees no evidence of poisoning and therefore no reason for an investigation.