Putin's Enemies: Justice Or Show Trials?

Anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny is the latest Russian opposition figure to feature in a series of criminal cases condemned as political "show trials" by critics of President Vladimir Putin.

The accusations have particular resonance in Russia because of the politically-motivated trials carried out over decades by Soviet leaders, which saw millions of politicians and ordinary people executed or sent to prison camps or psychiatric wards on trumped up charges.

The Kremlin denies allegations that it uses the courts to persecute opponents.

:: Alexei Navalny

The 38-year-old lawyer and activist rose to prominence by exposing political corruption in his blog before becoming a prominent speaker at anti-Putin rallies. He coined the phrase "party of crooks and thieves" to describe United Russia, Mr Putin's party.

He and his brother Oleg were charged with defrauding several companies, including the Russian subsidiary of the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.

Alexei Navalny was previously given a five-year suspended sentence in another embezzlement case, which his supporters also say was politically motivated.

:: Sergei Udaltsov

The leader of the Left Front political grouping, the 37-year-old has described himself as a "Soviet patriot". He and his wife Anastasia have been nicknamed "Russia's Revolutionary Couple".

After playing a prominent role in anti-Putin protests, Mr Udaltsov was charged over a demonstration held the day before Mr Putin's inauguration for his third term as president in May 2012.

He was jailed for four and a half years for organising the protest, which had turned violent.

:: Leonid Razvozzhaev

A Left Front colleague of Sergei Udaltsov, he faced the same charges but fled Russia and tried to seek political asylum in neighbouring Ukraine.

He claimed that while his application was being considered, he was kidnapped, taken back to Russia, tortured and forced to sign confessions which he subsequently disowned.

Russian authorities insisted that he had given himself up voluntarily.

He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

:: Mikhail Kosenko

The political activist was convicted of using violence against police officers during the same Bolotnaya Square protests that Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhaev were jailed for organising.

Despite testimony that he was a peaceful demonstrator, Mr Kosenko was sentenced to indefinite psychiatric detention. He was released in July 2014.

Amnesty International said: "Kosenko's only 'crime' was publicly expressing his beliefs. This is reminiscent of the Soviet-era tactics when the authorities used psychiatric treatment to silence dissenting voices."

:: Sergei Magnitsky

One of the most unusual criminal trials in that the defendant, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, died years before his trial had even started.

Magnitsky was instructed by American businessman William Browder to investigate a multi-million tax fraud against the Russian state which Mr Browder's businesses had become unwittingly involved in.

But when Magnitsky speculated that police officials were involved in the fraud, he was arrested and charged with having carried it out himself. He died in custody in 2009 after allegedly being denied medical treatment and brutally beaten.

In July 2012 he was convicted - three years after his death - of tax evasion.

Mr Browder said: "Today's verdict will go down in history as one of the most shameful moments for Russia since the days of Joseph Stalin."

He successfully campaigned for the United States to implement sanctions against Russian individuals linked to the case.

:: Greenpeace

In September 2013, 30 Greenpeace activists, including six Britons, were arrested for taking part in a protest at an Arctic oil installation.

They were initially charged with piracy, which could have carried a prison term of up to 15 years. The charge was downgraded to hooliganism, which still could have carried a seven-year term, before they were released after two months in detention.

At the time Mr Putin said their treatment should serve as a lesson to others and suggested unnamed foreign rivals could have been behind their actions.

:: Pussy Riot

The all-female punk group were jailed for two years for hooliganism for performing an anti-Putin song in Moscow's main cathedral in March 2012.

They were freed in an amnesty initiated by Mr Putin in December 2013 shortly before the Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi.

:: Vladimir Yevtushenkov

One of Russia's richest men, the billionaire was placed under house arrest in September on suspicion of money-laundering over his purchase of a controlling stake in oil company Bashneft.

He was released from house arrest on 17 December and was praised in Mr Putin's annual press conference two days later.

However, Kremlin critics say the case is part of a bid by the Russian government to regain control of oil and gas assets sold off in the chaotic privatisations of the 1990s.

The arrest has led to comparisons with the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

:: Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Mr Khodorkovsky was one of the original "oligarchs" - the tycoons who took advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s to make their fortunes, before using their clout to effectively rule Russia during the weak presidency of illness-plagued Boris Yeltsin.

In 2003 Mr Khodorkovsky was arrested on charges of fraud. He was jailed for nine years and his oil company Yukos broken up by the state. He and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, were put on trial again in 2010, this time for embezzlement, and were jailed for another four years. Mr Khodorkovsky was suddenly released in December 2013.

Both trials were seen as politically-motivated and a signal from Mr Putin to the rich and powerful to think twice before supporting opposition parties.