Russian opposition leader who blogged about Moscow corruption is jailed for five years for embezzlement Alexei Navalny found guilty of embezzling £330,000 worth of timber He started anti-corruption blog that propelled him to fame in Russia Grin: Alexei Navalny smiles in court before receiving his five year sentence A Russian judge has today sentenced protest leader Alexei Navalny to five years in prison after convicting him of large-scale theft in a trial Navalny said was politically motivated. Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's biggest critics, was led away from court by law enforcement officers after the judge pronounced the sentence in the industrial city of Kirov. Prosecutors had asked for a six-year sentence. Navalny was found guilty of heading a group that embezzled 16 million rubles (£330,000) worth of timber from state-owned company Kirovles in 2009 while he worked as an unpaid adviser to the provincial governor in Kirov. That was the same year that Navalny, a lawyer, started an anti-corruption blog that attracted a wide following and propelled him into becoming a key opposition figure. It was Navalny who called the dominant United Russia party 'the party of crooks and thieves' - a phrase that became a rallying cry for the nascent opposition to Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin. Backers say he is innocent, calling the trial unfair and the evidence against him shoddy. The U.S. and EU both criticszed the ruling within hours, arguing that the case appeared to be politically motivated. While waiting for the sentence for him and co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov - who was also found guilty of embezzlement - Navalny played with his smartphone and occasionally smiled sardonically. A post on his Twitter account during the long verdict reading noted the thick packet of papers the judge was reading and said: 'We're going crazy while we listen.' Ofitserov ran a timber trading company in Kirov during Navalny's time in the region. Navalny was a top leader of the wave of massive protest rallies that broke out in late 2011 after a national parliamentary election scarred by allegations of widespread fraud. A post on Navalny's Twitter account during the long verdict reading noted the thick packet of papers the judge was reading and said: 'We're going crazy while we listen' Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, centre, and his former colleague Pyotr Ofitserov, foreground, listen to the judge in a court in Kirov More recently, he pushed his ambitions by declaring himself a candidate for this autumn's Moscow mayoral election. The conviction does not immediately nullify his candidacy. That wouldn't happen until his defense team exhausted its appeals, which could take several months. It's unclear whether the conviction would intimidate his supporters or undermine the activists who have coalesced around him. The judge said he found the testimony of key prosecution witness Vyacheslav Opalev to be 'trustworthy and consistent.' Opalev, who was the timber company's general director, got a suspended sentence in an expedited trial in December after pleading guilty to conspiring with Navalny. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, right, shakes hands with opposition lawmaker Ilya Ponomarev before his sentencing Navalny insists Opalev framed him out of revenge. Navalny had recommended that Opalev be fired and that officials investigate potential corruption in his company, which had incurred 200 million rubles (£4million) in losses by the time Navalny arrived in the region. Throughout the trial, testimony of prosecution witnesses clashed with the core arguments of the indictment that claimed Navalny's work in Kirov led to the embezzlement. None of the managers at Kirovles who appeared in court, except for Opalev, were able to confirm that Navalny defrauded the company. Navalny had long said he expected to be convicted, and in a final blog post before leaving Moscow for Kirov, he downplayed his personal importance to the wider opposition. The most important thing is to muster up the strength, shake off laziness and do something. This doesn't require any leadership as such,' he wrote.