Navalny and his campaign manager are locked up for 20 days, as supporters call for nationwide protests on Saturday, Putin's birthday

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and his campaign manager, Leonid Volkov, were both sentenced to 20 days in jail by two different courts in Moscow on Monday, October 2. The two men were convicted of repeatedly violating Russian laws on public demonstrations.

Volkov was detained in Nizhny Novgorod, where local officials refused to permit Navalny's campaign rally on September 29. Police tore down a stage erected for the event, before it began. Volkov has declared a hunger strike while in jail. Navalny was detained in Moscow before he could reach the train station to travel to Nizhny Novgorod.

This is the third time Navalny has been jailed for public disturbances since December 2016, when he announced his presidential bid. By the end of this current jail sentence, Navalny will have spent roughly one fifth of his campaign locked up on misdemeanor convictions.

By the time Navalny gets out of jail in mid-October, this will be his life since hitting the campaign trail.

Supporter are planning to stage nationwide protests against Navalny’s incarceration on Saturday, October 7, which is also President Putin’s 65th birthday.