Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny tells Russian court to free him

By Polina Nikolskaya and Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) - Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny told a judge to set him free on Saturday as he appealed against what he said was a politically-motivated decision to jail him for nearly three years. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, was jailed earlier this month for parole violations he said were trumped up. The West has condemned the case and is discussing possible sanctions on Russia. As proceedings got underway, a relaxed-looking Navalny said he had heard about a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) telling Rus...