NZ calls Russia out
Wellington: New Zealand has joined the chorus of prominent international voices calling on the Russian Government to release President Vladimir Putin’s main political rival, Alexei Navalny.
Mr Navalny, the leader of the main opposition party in Russia, returned to his home country on Monday after recovering in Germany from an assassination attempt last August.
He says the Russian Government was behind his poisoning by a nerve agent, a claim denied by the Russian Government.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said that New Zealand was ‘‘concerned at the detention of Alexei Navalny and calls for his immediate release’’.
MOSCOW: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny yesterday urged Russians to take to the streets in protest after a judge remanded him in pretrial detention for 30 days, despite calls from Western countries to free him.
The United Nations and Western countries had told Moscow before the ruling to let Navalny go, and some countries have called for new sanctions on Moscow, which yesterday told them to mind their own business.
The ruling to remand Navalny in custody for violating the terms of a suspended jail sentence, a day after he flew back to Russia for the first time since he was poisoned with a nerve agent in August, could be the prelude to him being jailed for years.
Moscow’s prison service has applied to convert a suspended threeandahalfyear embezzlement sentence in the same case, which he says was trumped up, into real jail time early next month.
As Navalny was led out of a police station yesterday, he made a statement to his supporters.
‘‘Don’t be afraid, take to the streets. Don’t go out for me, go out for yourself and your future,’’ he said in a video posted to Twitter.
Supporters plan to rally across the country on Sunday, and an application for a 10,000strong meeting at the end of this month has been lodged with Moscow authorities.
More than 70 Navalny supporters and journalists were detained in Russia yesterday, monitoring group OVDInfo said.
Navalny (44) called his treatment illegal and accused President Vladimir Putin of throwing the criminal code out the window in fear.
The Kremlin has previously said Navalny must face justice if he has done anything wrong.
About 200 Navalny supporters had gathered outside the police station in freezing temperatures.
When they heard he had been remanded, they started chanting, ‘‘Disgrace!’’ and ‘‘Putin resign!’’
Navalny was detained at passport control on Monday, as he returned to Russia after being treated in Germany after what tests showed was poisoning by a Novichok nerve agent.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said they wanted European Union foreign ministers to discuss sanctions against Russia yesterday for detaining Navalny.
A Navalny ally released a list of eight Russian businessmen, bankers, government ministers and a statebacked journalist he said Navalny believed should be hit with Western sanctions.
The foreign ministers of Germany, Britain, France and Italy had earlier called for Navalny’s release, as did the UN human rights office.
Jake Sullivan, one of US Presidentelect Joe Biden’s top aides, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have criticised the arrest.
The Russian Foreign Ministry brushed off the criticism.
‘‘Respect international law, do not encroach on national legislation of sovereign states and address problems in your own country,’’ Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.