Russian oppositionist Alexey Navalny says he's raised 1.6 million dollars in campaign funding

Opposition politician Alexey Navalny revealed on Tuesday that he’s raised 98 million rubles ($1.6 million) in campaign funding since last December, when he announced his intention to seek the presidency. The donations have come from more than 70,000 people, with a median value of 500 rubles ($8), Navalny’s campaign said in a statement.

Navalny says the money has helped fund the opening of campaign offices in 63 regions across the country, where 230 paid staff are currently working. In addition to supporting the Navalny Live YouTube channel, the donations have also made it possible to print more than 11 million copies of campaign literature.

Navalny’s team says it also used some of the donations to help organize anti-corruption protests on March 26 and June 12. “Of course, these were anti-corruption rallies, not campaign events, but all organizational and material support was channeled through the campaign headquarters,” Navalny wrote on his website.

Alexey Navalny is running for president, hoping to find a spot on the ballot in March 2018. According to federal laws, however, he cannot stand for elected office, thanks to a suspended criminal sentence for misappropriating about $500,000 from a state-owned lumber company. Navalny denies the charges, and the European Court of Human Rights even ruled that his first conviction violated his right to a fair trial. In November 2016, Russia’s Supreme Court overturned the original 2013 sentence, but a Kirov district court repeated the verdict and sentence just three months later.