Kremlin: Russia has enough political pluralism

President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson on Saturday said that Russian politics is unaffected by opposition leader Alexei Navalny's imprisonment.

Dmitry Peskov said "political life in Russia has been developing and will keep developing", in response to a question about the impact Navalny's sentencing will have on the country's politics.

A Moscow court on Saturday rejected Navalny's appeal against his prison sentence, even as the country faced the European Court of Human Rights' order to free the Kremlin's most prominent foe. The judge only slightly reduced his sentence to just over 2 1/2 years in prison.

A lower court sentenced Navalny earlier this month to two years and eight months in prison for violating terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation. 

Image: AP