AKIPRESS.COM - Russia's main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been found guilty of embezzlement and handed a five-year suspended sentence, BBCreported.

It bars him from running for president next year against Vladimir Putin.

But Mr Navalny, who denies the charges, has vowed to take part in the race regardless. It was not immediately clear if this was legally possible.

His conviction came in a retrial after the European Court of Human Rights ruled the first trial to be unfair.

The court in the provincial city of Kirov found Mr Navalny guilty of embezzlement in relation to a timber company called Kirovles, for which he was also handed a 500,000-rouble ($8,500; £6,700) fine.