The leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny, leaves with a bus from a plane to a terminal of the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow on January 17, 2021.
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV | AFP | Getty Images
Russian authorities have detained opposition politician Alexei Navalny for 30 days, according to his spokesman, following a court hearing at a police station.
Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter on Monday that a judge had ruled that Navalny would be held in police custody until February 15. She added that it is not yet known where he will be detained during this period.
“They were detained at the border, taken in an unknown direction, the lawyer was not allowed, the trial was urgently carried out even in the police department and he was arrested for 30 days,” Yarmysh said at the hearing of the verdict, according to a translation.
“It can’t even be called a parody of legality,” she added.
This comes after the Russian authorities arrested Navalny on Sunday night, when his flight from Berlin, Germany landed at an airport in Moscow. It was the first time Navalny had returned to the country since he was poisoned last summer.
His detention had been ordered by the Moscow prison service in connection with alleged violations of the suspended prison sentence.
“Don’t be afraid, go out. Don’t go out for me, go out for yourself and your future,” Navalny said in a YouTube video following the judge’s decision, according to a Reuters translation.
The United Nations, government officials and human rights groups have all called on Russia to release Navalny immediately, while some countries imposed possible sanctions.
In response, Moscow said Navalny’s case had received “artificial” resonance in the West.
“It doesn’t get more illegal than that”
Navalny is widely regarded as the most prominent and staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The 44-year-old activist was frequently detained by authorities and harassed by pro-Kremlin groups.
Navalny had returned to Germany after narrowly surviving what was confirmed independent of poisoning by a nervous agent Novichok in August. 20.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia are seen at the passport checkpoint at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on January 17, 2021.
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV | AFP | Getty Images
Navalny said he believes Putin ordered the poisoning to go on, commenting in October last year that he sees no other explanation.
Putin’s government denies Navalny’s poisoning, although investigative reporters have since published evidence to support Navalny’s claims.
In a video posted by Yarmysh on Monday morning, Navalny showed up complaining about the absurdity of an impromptu court hearing at the Khimki police station near Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. “It’s not getting more illegal than that,” he said, according to an NBC translation.
A joint statement by the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – three former Soviet republics – called on Monday for the EU to consider “imposing restrictive measures in response to this flagrant act” if Navalny is not released from custody.
They described Navalny’s arrest as “completely unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Natalia Zviagina, director of Amnesty International’s Moscow office, said: “The arrest of Aleksei Navalny is further evidence that the Russian authorities are trying to silence him.”
She added: “His detention only highlights the need to investigate his allegations that he was poisoned by state agents acting on the orders of the highest levels.”