A Russian judge has sentenced protest leader Alexei Navalny to five years in a penal colony for embezzlement.
Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's biggest critics, was led away from court in the industrial city of Kirov following the sentencing.
The 37-year-old has said the case is politically motivated because of his opposition towards Mr Putin.
In a final tweet after he was led from the court, he wrote: "Don't miss me and don't do nothing."
Prosecutors had asked the court to jail the anti-corruption blogger for six years.
Judge Sergei Blinov found Navalny guilty of colluding to steal 16 million rubles (£326,000) in a timber deal while acting as an unpaid adviser to the local government in 2009.
He said: "Navalny... committed a grave crime.
"The court has established that Navalny organised the criminal act and led the execution of this large-scale embezzlement."
Navalny had said he wants to challenge Mr Putin for the presidency in the next election. He had been campaigning against corruption by state officials and companies since 2007.
He emerged as a powerful new political force in mass protests against Mr Putin that broke out in December 2011.
It was Navalny who coined the phrase "the party of crooks and thieves" to describe the ruling United Russia party. The phrase became a rallying cry for the opposition to Mr Putin.
Navalny with his mayor candidate registration card Katie Stallard, Sky's Moscow Correspondent, said: "The real question is what happens from now on. This is a gamble from the Kremlin's point of view.
"On the one hand they are taking this man out of the public spotlight, they are removing him from the position from which he could campaign.
"That will either silence him and kill off the nascent opposition or it will give them a martyr, it will give them a figure to rally behind."
Navalny claimed the embezzlement case had been personally ordered by Mr Putin in order to silence him.
Ahead of the verdict, Navalny had a rare victory after he was accepted as a candidate in a Moscow mayoral election.
The conviction does not immediately nullify his candidacy, which will only happen once the appeals process is over.
The case is seen as the biggest trial in Russia since the jailing of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2005 on tax evasion and fraud charges after he fell out with Mr Putin.
Lilia Shevtsova, a political analyst and author from the Carnegie Centre in Moscow said: "Khodorkovsky was a kind of warning to the business elite - 'don't meddle in politics'.
"Navalny was a warning to political elite, to the younger generation - 'don't even dare to fight with us'."
Ms Shevtsova said Navalny is a symbol of a new regime.
"The new regime introduces the new rules of the game for Russia, for the the country and for the state, which are based on the rule of total, absolute loyalty. No step to the right, no step to the left. Loyalty means you don't dare," she said.
"You don't dare to have ambitions, you don't dare to take part in the struggle for power."
Moscow's stock exchange, Micex, dipped by more than 1% after the sentencing.
Alfa Bank economist Natalia Orlova said: "Very few people believe that he is truly guilty. Even if he had some financial dealings, it's difficult to imagine that he must spend five years in prison.
"This is not a good sign."
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