Russia’s Supreme Court has struck down a lower court’s decision to hand Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a five year suspended sentence for corruption and sent the case back for retrial.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in February that the opposition activist’s right to a fair trial had been violated.

Navalny has said the original verdict was politically motivated and designed to prevent him from taking part, and running against President Putin, in elections.

Navalny’s supporters want him to run against Putin, though opinion polls show he has substantially less backing among Russian voters than the president.