Jailings are a warning according to Putin’s critics

One of the organisers of opposition protest was jailed by the Russian courts which also fined another and sentenced the husband of a third to a five-year prison term for fraud.

The opposition said that the rulings were a warning signal from Vladimir Putin who corrupted the judicial system.

Putin’s critics said the punishments handed down are likely to heighten opposition fears of a crackdown following his election to a new six-year term as president on 4 March.

The opposition warned of acts of vengeance ever since Putin won a third term as president and hundreds of protesters were arrested by riot police.

Far-left leader Sergei Udaltsov was jailed for 10 days after disobeying the police by addressing a small number of people in Moscow after a peaceful rally last Saturday.

The Russian courts fined Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption blogger, 1,000 roubles for refusing to go straight home after the rally in Moscow’s Pushkin Square.

Alexei Kozlov was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of fraud in a business deal and is husband to Olga Romanova is part of a lobby group that helped organise the biggest protests since Putin first rose to power in 2000,