TEMPO.CO, Moscow - Thousands of people gathered on the streets of Moscow yesterday, July 18, after the court decided that Alexei Navalny was guilty for embezzlement. Public support to President Vladimir Putin’s most influential critic stemmed from the belief that the punishment was given to silence Navalny.

Navalny, who has just announced his candidacy as Moscow mayor, was sentenced with 5 years in jail by the Kirov court under the accusation of embezzling timber worth 16 million rubel (US$500,000) from the state-owned company KirovLes in 2009. At the time he was working as an adviser to Kirov’s governor. Navalny has rejected the accusation.

"We were supposed to go to a museum, but the verdict changed that, and now we’re here," said Anna Abdelkhabi, a mother of three who joined the demonstration with her children. "Of course it was obvious (that Navalny would be found guilty), but on the other hand, there was this tiny, tiny bit of hope," Anna expressed her disappointment.

The protesters, who found information about the protests through Facebook, appeared at Manezh Square, near to the Kremlin Red Square. However, since the police blocked the place, the crowd took the streets around Manezh Square and near to the Duma building, which is Russia’s parliament building.

The police forcefully dispersed the protesters before midnight, as reported by Gazeta.ru. At least 100 people were detained.

The court’s sentence is believed to be a form of crackdown towards the newest Russia activists, that is said to be more intensified after Putin was re-elected as President in March last year. Kremlin has so far captured a number of opposition activists and silenced dissidents by fining people who join demonstrations without permission.

In the latest twist suspected to be staged in order to sooth the public’s fury, prosectors filed a complaint against the ruling under which Navalny was taken into custody prior to his appeal. They said he should remain free, with travel restrictions, pending his appeal.

Navalny is widely known as an anti-corruption activist after he wrote about corruption allegations in his blog in 2008. With the help of a number of volunteers and a group of lawyers, he searched upon many datas of high officials and parliamentary members who kept secret assets in foreign countries, and he even managed to reveal those who were registered under double citizenship.

The 37-year-old man wrote in his blog that Putin’s United Russia Party is composed of a group of 'thieves and crooks'. Also in his blog, that is followed by hundreds of thousands of people, Navalny noted down Putin’s promises in his campaigns that the president has violated. When the state was accused of manipulations in the 2011 parliamentary election, the Yale alumnus made himself one of the leaders of the movement to oppose Putin.

White House spokesman, Jay Carney, expressed the United State’s disappointment over Navalny’s verdict. Resounding the US, the European Union, through its External Relations Head Catherine Ashton, said the verdict posed 'serious questions' about the rule of law in Russia.

However, Kremlin has constantly denied that Putin abuses his judicial power to silence dissidents.

AP | BBC | SITA PLANASARI AQUADINI