Hiiraan Online

Monday January 18, 2021

The arrest of Alexei Navalny has provoked condemnation around the world, as the United States and Europe, as well as prominent activists like Edward Snowden, called for Russian authorities to release the opposition leader.

Navalny was taken into custody on Sunday evening as he returned to Russia for the first time since a suspected poisoning by the FSB last year, risking his freedom in a direct challenge to the Kremlin.

Amnesty International quickly pronounced Navalny a “prisoner of conscience,” saying that he “has been deprived of his liberty for his peaceful political activism and for exercising free speech”.

Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who now lives in Russia, also tweeted in support of Navalny, calling his arrest a “repetition of mistakes made in the Soviet era”.

The outgoing US administration, which has been hesitant to criticise Vladimir Putin’s government, also condemned Navalny’s arrest.

The US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said Washington strongly condemned Navalny’s detention, describing it as “the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures and independent voices who are critical of Russian authorities”.

“Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor commit violence against or wrongfully detain political opponents,” he added.

Germany’s foreign minister Heiko Maas said: “Russia is bound by its own constitution and by international obligations to the principle of the rule of law and to the protection of civil rights. These principles must, of course, be applied to Alexei Navalny as well. He should be released immediately.”

Navalny was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday, less than an hour after he flew in from Germany, where he had been recovering from the poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok that he says was ordered by President Vladimir Putin.

Police officers met Navalny at passport control and detained him. Navalny kissed his wife goodbye and gave her a hug. He then disappeared with the officers.

Supporters were temporary unable to find Navalny and began tweeting under the hashtag Where is Navalny to demand information on his arrest. Late on Sunday evening, his lawyer said that Navalny was being held at a police station near the airport and that she had not been admitted to see him.

The president of the European council, Charles Michel, said Navalny’s detention was “unacceptable”. “I call on Russian authorities to immediately release him,” Michel tweeted.

France’s foreign ministry echoed that call. “With its European partners, it is following the situation with the utmost vigilance and call for his immediate release,” spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a statement.

The British foreign office said it was “deeply concerned … Instead of persecuting the victim of this terrible crime, the Russian authorities should investigate how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil.”

British opposition MPs also criticised Russia. Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said Navalny was “the victim of a cowardly chemical weapons attack. He has shown great courage in returning to his homeland. His detention is unjustifiable and an insult to the Russian people. He must be released immediately and his attackers brought to justice.”

Britain’s defence committee chairman, Tobias Ellwood, called Navalny’s decision to return to Russia “incredibly brave”.

“Poisoned by the FSB yet he chooses to return to Russia and has now been arrested.
Incredibly brave stand by Navalny in the name of democracy as we head towards Russian parliamentary elections.”

Navalny’s flight had been due to touch down at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, where hundreds of supporters had gathered. The authorities closed the airport at the last minute, and diverted Navalny’s plane to Sheremetyevo, away from waiting media.

Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, said in a tweet that Navalny had not been allowed to see a lawyer at the airport or at the police station.

Prior to Navalny’s arrival, Russia’s prisons service said the 44-year-old had violated parole terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 embezzlement conviction.