Kremlin warns against protests to free Navalny

Navalny accuses Putin of ordering poisoning, Kremlin denies report

Moscom, Jan. 19: The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed Western demands to release Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny, saying his calls for mass protests over his arrest were “troubling”.

Legal pressure is ramping up against President Vladimir Putin’s best-known domestic critic, who is due in court on defamation charges on Wednesday, as his allies in Russia call for protests in Moscow this weekend.

Navalny, 44, was arrested on Sunday as he returned to Russia from Germany for the first time since he recovered from a nearfatal poisoning with the Soviet-designed Novichok nerve agent in August.

Russia’s prison service said it had detained the opposition politician for violating the terms of a suspended sentence he was given in 2014 on fraud charges he says were politically motivated.

A hastily organised court on Monday ordered Navalny jailed for 30 days, prompting his associates to call on Russians to take to the streets in central Moscow and march towards the Kremlin on Saturday.

Demonstrations in Moscow have been banned due to Coronavirus restrictions, but Navalny’s right-hand man Leonid Volkov said on Tuesday the organisers would not seek formal permission from authorities to stage the rally.

Volkov said that, the prospect that the unauthorised rally could result in detentions for Navalny’s supporters would not deter them, pointing to what he said were multiplying attacks on the opposition.

“Putin poisoned Navalny and Navalny is now behind bars,” he said.

Navalny accuses Putin of ordering his poisoning, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

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Police officers patrol in front of Moscows penal detention centre Number 1 (known as Matrosskaya Tishina) where opposition leader Alexei Navalny is held after being jailed for 30 days following his arrest at a Moscow airport upon the arrival from Berlin, on Tuesday. —