Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Navalny's supporters have vowed to continue the struggle 
 
 Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny has been jailed for five years, for embezzlement from a timber firm. 
 
 Navalny had denied the charges, saying the trial was politically motivated. 
 
 The 37-year-old had been a leading campaigner against President Putin's United Russia party, and regularly blogged about corruption allegations. 
 
 The EU said the verdict posed "serious questions" about the state of Russian law. The US said it was "deeply disappointed". 
 
 Before he was handcuffed and led away, Navalny urged his supporters to continue his anti-corruption struggle, tweeting: "Don't sit around doing nothing." 
 
 Navalny has previously said he would like to stand for president one day. 
 
 He had recently registered his candidacy for the next mayor of Moscow, but his campaign team said that after the verdict he was withdrawing from the race, and called on his supporters to boycott the vote. 
 
 Analysis Minutes after Judge Blinov started reading from the substantial sheaf of papers, it became evident the two defendants, Alexei Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov, were going to be found guilty. Seasoned observers of this trial were just about able to pick up the judge's words. Others were bewildered by the hum-like reading. Entering the courtroom just before the verdict reading started, both defendants were far from gloomy. "Why sad faces?" quipped Navalny, walking past dozens of journalists and a row of cameras. Navalny has long acquired the skill of tweeting and blogging while interminable financial documents were read by prosecution, defence and, now, judge. Publishing his fiery comments on politics, corruption and the need to unite in opposition to Vladimir Putin's regime - that's one of the many things he won't be able to do from behind bars, waiting for the sentence to be appealed against. 
 
 'Explosion of anger' 
 
 The BBC's Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford says that when the sentence was handed down, there were tears from Navalny's supporters and an explosion of anger on the social networking sites that he has used so effectively. 
 
 Anti-Putin activist and former cabinet minister Boris Nemtsov told reporters the trial was "completely fabricated from start to finish, and even the judge could not say what the reason for the crime was". 
 
 Other countries have also voiced their concern at the verdict. The US ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, said: "We are deeply disappointed in the conviction of Navalny and the apparent political motivations in this trial." 
 
 A spokesperson for the EU's top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, said the embezzlement charges were unsubstantiated, and that Navalny's jailing posed "serious questions as to the state of the rule of law in Russia". 
 
 French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot added his concern, but said: "We note that not all judicial remedies have been exhausted and that the sentence could be reviewed on appeal." 
 
 Navalny's supporters in Moscow have vowed to stage protests against the verdict later on Thursday. 
 
 'Almost inevitable' 
 
 Navalny arrived at the courtroom in Kirov to hear the verdict after a 12-hour overnight train journey from Moscow. 
 
 Our correspondent said Navalny smiled in a resigned manner when the almost inevitable guilty verdict came. 
 
 His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said her husband knew he would get a non-suspended sentence and was mentally prepared to go to prison. 
 
 Navalny was found guilty of heading a group that embezzled timber worth 16m rubles ($500,000; £330,000) from the Kirovles state timber company while working as an adviser to Kirov's governor Nikita Belykh. 
 
 The prosecution had asked for a six-year jail sentence, but judge Sergei Blinov decided on five years, and said there were no extenuating circumstances that would warrant keeping Navalny out of prison. 
 
 Navalny's co-accused, Pyotr Ofitserov, was also found guilty, and given a four-year jail sentence. 
 
 "Navalny... committed a grave crime," said Judge Blinov as he delivered the sentence. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Alexei Navalny (centre) took a 12-hour train journey to Kirov for the verdict. Image copyright AP Image caption As he had throughout the trial, Navalny kept his followers up-to-date on social media. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Judge Sergei Blinov said Navalny had committed a "grave crime", and sentenced him to five years in jail. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Navalny had expected the verdict, but it could put his hopes of running for Moscow mayor in doubt. Image copyright Reuters Image caption After hugging his wife, and tweeting to his followers not to "sit and do nothing", Navalny was led away to jail. previous slide next slide 
 
 State television has only shown limited interest in the process despite Navalny's prominence, but online the trial has been followed extensively. 
 
 Mr Navalny came to public attention when he inspired mass protests against the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin in December 2011. 
 
 Alexei Navalny's rise to prominence 2008: Started blogging about allegations of corruption at some of Russia's big state-controlled firms 
 
 Started blogging about allegations of corruption at some of Russia's big state-controlled firms Nov 2011: Ahead of parliamentary poll, he criticised President Putin's United Russia, famously dubbing it the "party of crooks and thieves" 
 
 Ahead of parliamentary poll, he criticised President Putin's United Russia, famously dubbing it the "party of crooks and thieves" Dec 2011: After the poll, he inspired mass protests against the Kremlin, and was arrested and imprisoned for 15 days 
 
 After the poll, he inspired mass protests against the Kremlin, and was arrested and imprisoned for 15 days Oct 2012: Won most votes in a poll to choose opposition leadership 
 
 Won most votes in a poll to choose opposition leadership April 2013: Went on trial 
 
 Went on trial July 2013: Declared himself a candidate for Moscow mayoral election 
 
 Declared himself a candidate for Moscow mayoral election July 2013: Found guilty of theft and embezzlement Profile: Alexei Navalny A thorn in Putin's side 
 
 Judge Blinov said he found the testimony of the main prosecution witness, Vyacheslav Opalev, to be "trustworthy and consistent''. 
 
 Navalny insists that Mr Opalev spoke against him out of revenge, because Navalny had recommended he be fired and his company investigated for corruption. 
 
 After the verdict, Navalny tweeted: "So that's it. Don't get bored without me. Most importantly, don't sit around doing nothing. The toad won't get off the oil pipe by itself." 
 
 In his LiveJournal blog on Wednesday Navalny said: "The current authorities are not a big, healthy fish, but rather a bloated fish or Latin American toad, which puffs itself up when it sees danger, with the help of television." 
 
 In an unusual step, the court allowed the whole trial to be broadcast live online. 
 
 He is now one of the key figures of the opposition - a thorn in the side of the political establishment, campaigning against the endemic corruption, our correspondent says. 
 
 Mr Navalny has also coined a phrase to describe the ruling party United Russia that has stuck in everyone's minds - "the party of crooks and thieves". ||||| The Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was unexpectedly released from custody on Friday, one day after thousands of Russians marched on the Kremlin to protest against a decision to send him to jail. 
 
 The move appeared to signal the Kremlin's concern over the revived protests, or elite infighting over how to deal with a man who has gained increasing popularity through his opposition to the regime of Vladimir Putin. 
 
 One day after sentencing him to five years in jail on charges of embezzlement, which Navalny's supporters called politically motivated, a judge in the provincial city of Kirov approved a rare prosecution request to release him from police custody during the appeal process. 
 
 Navalny hugged his wife upon his release and was due to arrive in Moscow from Kirov, 500 miles away, on Saturday morning. 
 
 He thanked his supporters, thousands of whom flooded the streets of Moscow and other big cities on Thursday night. Around 200 people were detained in Moscow after an hours-long protest that centred on Manezh Square, just outside the Kremlin's walls. 
 
 "Thank you to everyone, that with your decisiveness you forced them to free me and Petya," Navalny wrote in a blog post, referring to his co-defendant Petr Ofitserov, sentenced to four years in prison and also released from custody on Friday. 
 
 "It doesn't matter if this is temporary or not," Navalny wrote. "People decide their own fate." 
 
 Navalny plans to appeal the verdict, which found him guilty of embezzling 16m roubles from a timber firm while advising the Kirov region's governor in 2009. The trial and sentencing were widely seen as a means of silencing Navalny, who has won a large following by exposing corruption inside the Russian government. He is the most popular opposition leader to have emerged from mass street protests that shook Moscow last year as Putin prepared to return to the presidency following four years as prime minister. 
 
 The US, UK and EU had all expressed concern over the verdict. 
 
 Navalny's release will now allow him to continue to take part in the race for Moscow mayor, with elections due to be held in early September. He had to suspend his candidacy in the wake of the verdict. 
 
 But some observers fear the surprise move was a further means of discrediting Navalny, allowing him to take part in the Moscow mayoral vote, before losing and being sent to prison as both a convicted criminal and a political failure. 
 
 Navalny has won growing support among Russia's urban, internet-connected youth. Yet a recent poll by the Levada Centre, an independent pollster, said his support in the mayoral election stood at only 4%. 
 
 "Everything has fallen into place," wrote Sergei Parkhomenko, a popular journalist and opposition activist. "There are indeed two groups: one, quite powerful, but still subordinate, has its clear reasoning that Navalny should take part in elections," he wrote. "They will be ready to risk watching with horror day by day as Navalny's rating grows." 
 
 The second, Parkhomenko wrote, was more powerful and sought to rule by fear. "They dream of confusing us and ruining us," Parkhomenko wrote. "The most important thing is not to lose strength."
– A leader of Russia's protest movement has been found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison for financial theft from a state-run timber firm. Alexsei Navalny is known for using the Internet to attack corruption and the "swindlers and thieves" of Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, the New York Times notes. The court said Navalny, while working as a governor's aide, led a group that embezzled some $500,000 from the company, the BBC reports. Tweeting in court, Navalny said prosecutors' evidence was faked, and an earlier probe found no grounds for his charges. Indeed, Russian investigators suggested Navalny's outspokenness was his downfall. "If a person tries with all his strength to attract attention ... then interest in his past grows and the process of exposing him naturally speeds up," said a spokesman for investigators. Navalny, who had recently announced he was running for Moscow mayor, is now poised to be disqualified, the Times notes. He and his wife spent much of the trial on Twitter, even after a judge told everyone to shut off their phones. "Don’t miss me. And most importantly—do not be lazy," Navalny told supporters. "The toad (of the government) will not remove itself from the oil pipeline." Click for more from the court.