A Moscow court on Friday sentenced Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin to eight years and six months imprisonment, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti, in a blow to what’s left of the country’s opposition.Strong leaders are calm and self-confident, and only weaklings seek to shut everyone up, burn out any dissent.After a five-month stay in Germany recovering from the Novichok poisoning, Navalny last year returned to Moscow, where he was immediately arrested for violating probation terms imposed from a 2014 case.“This is another reason why we must fight, and I have no doubt that we will win in the end.”Navalny said in the statement Yashin was his “first friend” he made in politics and knew him since the age of 18.Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, who is on Russia’s wanted list and lives in exile in London, told CNN Yashin was “an extremely brave person” who “chose to remain in Russia and to speak against the war.”He added he believed Yashin was a symbol of Russian resistance against the war."