Navalny supporters arrested at protest near Kremlin

More than 3,000 supporters of convicted Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny gathered to protest on a central square in Moscow just outside the Kremlin on Thursday, but most of it was fenced off and police used loudspeakers to order people out. Navalny was sentenced to five years in jail for theft earlier in the day, an unexpectedly tough punishment which supporters said proved President Vladimir Putin was a dictator ruling by repression. Navalny is an anti-corruption campaigner who led the biggest protests against Putin since he took power in 2000. Police pushed protesters away with increasing force and reached into the crowd repeatedly to detain protesters who drew applause by holding up pictures of Navalny. At least 10 people were detained in Moscow and bundled into police buses, and protests were also held in other cities including St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg in the Urals.