MOSCOW - Three Russian opposition leaders received short jail terms on Sunday for "disobedience towards police" after a rally, a party spokesman said, a sign of a new crackdown on critics of the Kremlin.

Boris Nemtsov, a Solidarity leader and Russia's Deputy Prime Minister in 1997-1998, was sentenced to 15 days in jail, another opposition leader, Konstantin Kosyakin, was given ten days and a third, Ilya Yashin, got five days under the same charge.

It was the first time in more than a year that opposition leaders had been imprisoned, albeit for a short time, and came just days after former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to six more years in prison.