A court in Russia\'s northern Kirov region on Friday ordered the release of protest leader Alexei Navalny pending the appeal against his five year sentence on embezzlement charges. The court ruled that keeping Navalny in custody would deprive him of his right to stand in mayoral elections in Moscow on September 8. Navalny and his co-accused Pyotr Ofitserov were immediately released in court and Navalny embraced his wife Yulia, an AFP correspondent reported.