MOSCOW (AP) — Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been released from jail after serving 50 days on two consecutive sentences for organizing unsanctioned protests. 
 
 Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent foe, had been sentenced to 30 days for organizing a protest in August, but upon release was immediately arrested and then sentenced to another 20 days for organizing a protest that took place while he was in jail. 
 
 Both protests were against a Russian government plan to raise the eligibility age for state pensions, which has since been signed into law. 
 
 After his release early Sunday, Navalny told reporters "I think over the 50 days which I spent here, we saw a lot of evidence that this regime has absolutely deteriorated: from failures in foreign intelligence to failures in space industry." ||||| The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been freed after three weeks behind bars for organising anti-Kremlin protests. It was his second spell in detention in as many months. 
 
 The 42-year-old activist left a detention centre in the south of Moscow in the early hours of Sunday morning and went to a waiting car. 
 
 “Over the 50 days I have been in jail we have seen yet more evidence that this regime is in complete decline,” he said, referring to recent embarrassments to Moscow’s intelligence services abroad and the launch failure of a manned Russian space rocket. 
 
 “If anyone thinks that with arrests ... they can scare or stop us, that is clearly not the case.” 
 
 Authorities have turned up the heat on Vladimir Putin’s top critic since the Russian president’s approval ratings took a beating over deeply unpopular pension reforms. 
 
 Navalny finished a 30-day sentence in September for organising a rally at the start of the year but was arrested as soon as he was released to face further charges over another protest. 
 
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 The latter demonstration, against the raising of the retirement age, was timed to coincide with regional elections in September. 
 
 The Kremlin suffered rare defeats in those polls, with voters rejecting candidates from the ruling United Russia party in at least two regions. 
 
 A run-off in the far-eastern Primorsky Krai will be held again in two months after accusations of vote-rigging in favour of the Moscow-backed candidate led to protests. 
 
 The Navalny ally Leonid Volkov said at the time of the latest arrest that the Kremlin had “to take it out on someone because of all their defeats and failures of the last weeks”. 
 
 Supporters fear that the two consecutive administrative cases mean the authorities may be getting ready to open a criminal case against Navalny. In that case he could face a lengthy prison term. 
 
 Amnesty International described Navalny as a prisoner of conscience and said he had committed no crime.
– The revolving door between Alexei Navalny and jail has swung open again, reports the AP, with the Kremlin opposition leader released after 50 days on the inside for two consecutive sentences for organizing unsanctioned protests. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent foe, had been sentenced to 30 days for organizing a protest in August, but upon release was immediately arrested and then sentenced to another 20 days for organizing a protest that took place while he was in jail. Both protests were against a Russian government plan to raise the eligibility age for state pensions, which has since been signed into law. After his release early Sunday, Navalny told reporters that "I think over the 50 days which I spent here, we saw a lot of evidence that this regime has absolutely deteriorated: from failures in foreign intelligence to failures in space industry." He added, per the Guardian: "If anyone thinks that with arrests ... they can scare or stop us, that is clearly not the case."