Europe's top human rights court has ordered Russia to release jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a ruling quickly rejected on Wednesday by Russian authorities who are bent on isolating the Kremlin's most prominent foe.
The decision by the European Court of Human Rights had demanded that Russia free Navalny immediately and warns that failing to do so would mark a breach of the European human rights convention.
Russia's justice minister dismissed the court's demand as “unfounded and unlawful” and the Foreign Ministry denounced it as part of Western meddling in the country's domestic affairs.
Navalny, 44, an anti-corruption investigator and