Convicted Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was freed by a court on Friday, July 19 pending appeal, arrived back in his home city of Moscow by train Saturday morning and announced he will run for mayor of the Russian capital in an upcoming election, RIA Novosti reported.

"We will go to the elections and we will win," he said.

“There is an election campaign ahead of us, seven weeks of pre-election battle,” he said, and thanked all his supporters, without whose support, he said, he and co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov would not have been released.

“We are a huge, powerful force. I’m very glad that we’ve started to recognize that force ourselves…I want to apologize to you for not believing so strongly in you,” he said, adding he would be in his campaign headquarters every day.

He will run on behalf of the RPR-PARNAS opposition party.

Police with loud-hailers ordered bystanders to clear the platform at Moscow’s Yaroslavsky rail station as Navalny’s train arrived, citing security concerns because an unattended object had been found.

Navalny was sentenced to five years by a court in the city of Kirov on Thursday and fined 500,000 rubles ($15,150) on embezzlement charges, and put into temporary custody.

He was released on Friday by the same court because his sentence will come into effect only ten days later. He is under orders not to leave Moscow until his sentence comes into effect.

His defense intends to appeal the verdict. Navalny has consistently claimed the charges against him were a political vendetta by the government in response to his anti-corruption campaigning and other opposition activities, a charge the Kremlin denies.