Dominic Raab demands immediate release of Alexei Navalny
The UK has demanded the immediate release of Alexei Navalny after he was arrested at a Moscow airport yesterday.
Kremlin critic Navalny was detained by police as he got off the plane on his first return to Russia since being poisoned last year.
Writing on Twitter, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said: “It is appalling that Alexey Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by Russian authorities.
“He must be immediately released. Rather than persecuting Mr Navalny Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil.”
Raab’s call came as Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said that a court hearing had already got underway.
Raab joined the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Italy in calling for Navalny’s release. Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s designated national security adviser, and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did the same.
But authorities in Russia rejected the calls, saying that the West should mind its own business.
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“Respect international law, do not encroach on national legislation of sovereign states and address problems in your own country,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
Navalny is being held in prison due to alleged violations of a suspended prison sentence, which he says have been trumped up.
A court hearing is expected on 29 January which will decide whether to convert the suspended sentence into a jail term.
Navalny was poisoned with deadly nerve agent Novichok on 20 August this year, and was hospitalised in a serious condition.
It is believed that Russia’s FSB security agency was responsible for the poisoning, with an increasing body of evidence proving that Vladimir Putin’s government ordered the attempted killing.
Minister for vaccine deployment Nadhim Zahawi said that the government was very worried about Navalny’s safety.
“The Foreign Secretary will say more about this, but we are very worried about the wellbeing and safety of Alexei Navalny”, he told Sky News.
“And of course, we have to make sure that the Russian government answers why a poison was used against Alexei Navalny.”