Alexei Navalny

Video of the Thursday raid, shows a shower of fiery sparks as the door to Nalvany's Anti-corruption Foundation office is forced open with power tools.

Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, runs an anti-corruption organization that Russian authorities accuse of being a "foreign agent." This week, he hit back.

Lyubov Sobol's tenacity in standing up to the authorities, combined with a savvy use of social media, has put her at the center of attention as a new protest leader.

Supporters say Alexei Nalvany was exposed to a chemical agent while serving a 30-day sentence for leading an opposition action against the Kremlin.

Upon his release, Alexei Navalny said in an apparently sarcastic Instagram post that the prison was getting upgrades for soccer fans: LCD TVs and three-course meals.

By the end of his new presidential term, Putin will have served longer than any other Russian leader since Communist dictator Josef Stalin.

Navalny says he faces jail time for organizing illegal protests. It's not the first arrest this year for the Kremlin critic, who has been barred from running in this year's presidential election.

The popular 41-year-old lawyer is calling for a boycott of the March 18 presidential election, which he says is rigged. He says Putin's regime is built on making Russians believe nothing can change.

Russian police dragged opposition leader Alexei Navalny from a march in Moscow and carried him feet-first into a van. Earlier Russian authorities appeared to raid his headquarters,

Alexei Navalny will not be allowed to run for president in Russia's election next year, officials announced on Monday. Navalny, a critic of President Vladimir Putin, has vowed to appeal.

Novosibirsk is a key center of support for opposition leader Alexei Navalny. "I believed that Putin would make things better," a protester said. But "he made things better only for a few people."

A Moscow court sentenced Navalny to 30 days in jail, after police detained him outside his home Monday ahead of nationwide demonstrations. Hundreds of others were also detained.