Alexei Navalny has made his first public appearance since staging a 24-day hunger strike. Navalny, who was fined 850,000 roubles (£8,200) in February for defaming a second world war veteran who backed a 'reset' of Vladimir Putin’s presidential terms, has said the case against him was concocted to further damage his reputation among Russians.

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In a courtroom speech, Navalny accused the government of turning 'Russians into slaves' and called Putin a 'naked king', a reference to Hans Christian Andersen’s folktale The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Navalny is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence on an embezzlement conviction from 2013. He was arrested in January upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin – accusations Russian officials reject.

Alexei Navalny looks gaunt as he appears in court after hunger strike ► https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/29/alexei-navalny-looks-gaunt-as-he-appears-in-court-after-hunger-strike

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