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At the time, the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov says his reaction is aimed at diverting attention from the “crisis” in the West.
President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic is still unable to meet with his lawyer, hours after he was arrested immediately after returning from Germany, where he was treated for several months after trying to poison him.
The arrest sparked a wave of Western condemnation, and foreign governments and activists called on the Kremlin to release Navalna.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday it was “completely incomprehensible” that the Russian authorities detained Navalna as soon as he returned, and said Moscow should release criticism of the Kremlin “immediately”.
Navaln “made the conscious decision to return to Russia because he considers it his personal and political home,” Maas said.
Earlier on Monday, a close Navaln associate, Leonid Volkov, said the politician was being held at the police station in the capital’s Khimki suburb and that one of his team members should be able to meet him.
Navaln was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport less than an hour after his plane landed in Germany.
In Berlin, he was treated with a nerve paralyzing substance after poisoning last summer. A critic of the Kremlin claims that the Federal Security Service (FSB) tried to poison him on Putin’s instructions.
Ruthless campaign
The United States, the European Union, the governments of several EU states, Canada, the United Kingdom and a senior adviser to President-elect Joe Biden immediately called on Moscow to release Navalna immediately. Some EU members have called for new sanctions against Russia.
Human rights organizations have joined these calls. Amnesty International called Navalna a prisoner of conscience and accused the Russian authorities of conducting a “ruthless campaign” to silence him.
European Council President Charles Michel on Sunday condemned Navaln’s arrest as “unacceptable” and the French Foreign Ministry said his arrest was “very worrying”.
On Monday, British diplomatic chief Dominic Raab also condemned the “horrible” detention of A. Navaln and called for his release.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova spoke with Western leaders on Sunday calling for “respect for international law” and “solution of problems in their own countries.”
Lavrov told a news conference on Monday: “We watch yesterday’s news about Navaln’s return to the Russian Federation now, only to feel that the comments come with such joy, as if they were copied. With joy, because that it seems to make Western politicians think that this way they will be able to divert attention from the deepest crisis in which the liberal development model finds itself.
Russia’s federal prison service said Navaln was wanted because he had violated the terms of a probation sentence imposed on him in a 2014 fraud case. The service said he “will be detained” pending a court order.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), founded by Navaln, said on Monday that he had been illegally detained by the police and stressed that he was not allowed to meet with his lawyers.
“Navaln is a Russian citizen. He was illegally detained. He is not allowed to have lawyers,” FBK wrote on Twitter.
Navaln, 44, felt ill in August during a flight from Siberia to Moscow, and a couple of days later he was flown to Germany for treatment.
Western experts have discovered that a Kremlin critic was poisoned by the nerve paralyzing substance Novičiok, created in the Soviet Union.
Moscow denies having contributed in any way to the attack, and Russian investigators say there is no reason to launch an investigation.
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