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Calls to let Navalny go dismissed

RUSSIA has brushed off calls from US and European officials to release opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he was detained on his return. The Kremlin described the detention of Navalny, who was arrested after returning from Germany following treatment for nerve agent poisoning, as “an absolutely internal matter”.

Statements from around the globe condemned the arrest and called for the immediate release of Navalny, who blames his poisoning on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government. They add to existing tensions between Russia and the West, with some EU countries suggesting additional sanctions against Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “we can’t and are not going to take these statements into account”.

Peskov told continued: “We are talking about a fact of noncompliance with the Russian law by a citizen of Russia. This is an absolutely internal matter and we will not allow anyone to interfere in it and do not intend to listen to such statements.”

Navalny was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after flying in on Sunday night from Berlin, where he was treated following the poisoning in August. He was ordered to pre-trial detention for 30 days during a hastily set-up court hearing.

Russia’s prison service maintains Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition figure and anti-corruption campaigner, violated probation terms of his suspended sentence on a 2014 money laundering conviction, which was deemed “arbitrary” by the European Court of Human Rights.