A RUSSIAN opposition leader has been released from detention after spending three weeks in jail.

Alexei Navalny broke the news on social media this afternoon.

Navalny was detained by police at the end of September and sentenced to 20 days in jail for repeatedly violating laws by organising public meetings and protests.

After release, Navalny also said on social media he would speak at a political meeting in the provincial town of Astrakhan in southern Russia yesterday.

In Moscow, a banner hung on a bridge near the Kremlin today, calling for people to vote for Navalny and get rid of President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny hopes to run for president in 2018 even though Russia’s central election commission declared him ineligible because of a suspended prison sentence, which he says was politically motivated.

Earlier this month Europe’s top human rights court ruled Navalny’s conviction for fraud in 2014 had been “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable” and ordered Russia to pay him compensation.

A suspended jail sentence in a separate case — which Navalny says was politically motivated — may still bar him from running for president.

Putin has declined to say whether he would run for what would be his fourth stint in the Kremlin. If he runs, he is widely expected to win.