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The new administration in Washington reacted quickly on Saturday after thousands of people were arrested in Russia, sending a strong message to Moscow and demanding the immediate release of Alexei Navalny’s opponent.
Amnesty International accused the police of “indiscriminately beating and arbitrarily arresting” protesters.
“The United States strongly condemns the use of brutal methods against protesters and journalists this weekend in Russian cities,” the new spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price, said in a statement.
“The constant attempts to suppress the right of Russians to peacefully assemble and stifle freedom of expression, the arrest of Aleksei Navalny’s opponent and the crackdown on subsequent protests are worrying signs of further restrictions on civil society and fundamental freedoms” Ned Price said.
“We urge the Russian authorities to release all those arrested for the exercise of their fundamental rights and to release Aleksei Navalny immediately and unconditionally,” said a spokesman for US diplomacy, urging Russia to cooperate in the international investigation. To poison Navalny and give credibility explanations about the use of a chemical weapon in his territory.
“The United States will support its allies and partners in defending human rights, whether in Russia or anywhere else where they are threatened,” is the warning that Washington diplomacy finally sends to Moscow.
Moscow demands “explanations” from Americans
On the other hand, Moscow this Saturday asked the US Embassy in the Russian Federation for “explanations”, which it finds “guilty” of having published the itineraries of the demonstrations. The US embassy website issued a warning to US citizens who were advised not to attend Saturday’s demonstrations in Russia. In this text, the diplomatic mission specified in which cities and on which streets the protests are scheduled to take place. From the point of view of the Russian diplomat, this means, in effect, encouraging the protesters. According to Maria Zaharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, if the Russian Embassy in Washington had done the same, it would have provoked “threats of sanctions and expulsions of Russian diplomats.” Consequently, American diplomats in Moscow are summoned to the Russian MFA for explanations.
More than 2,500 protesters were arrested Saturday in Russia’s largest protest in recent years. Demonstrations for the release of Aleksei Navalny took place in 100 cities in the Russian Federation, including Siberia, despite very low temperatures. The main demonstrations took place on Saturday in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where tens of thousands of protesters attended.
Several clashes occurred in Moscow on Saturday afternoon between agents of the special forces who used sticks and protesters, who generally resorted to snowballs and other projectiles. In the evening, hundreds of people gathered at the Matroskaya Tisina prison in northern Moscow, where Aleksai Navalny’s opponent is being held. Police in riot gear stormed a demonstration on Friday, taking hundreds of protesters away by truck.
Although they parted ways, the EU and Britain condemn Moscow in unison
For his part, European Chancellor Josep Borrell denounced “massive arrests” and “disproportionate use of force” during Saturday rallies in Russia for the release of Aleksai Navalny’s opponent.
“We will discuss the next steps with the EU foreign ministers on Monday,” he added in a Twitter post.
Several Member States and the European Parliament are calling for new sanctions against Russia, but such a measure requires the unanimity of all 27.
On Friday, European Council President Charles Michel spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called for the “immediate release” of the Russian opponent. He expressed the EU’s “serious concerns” about Navalny’s fate and called for “full and unconditional respect for his rights.”
For its part, Britain has called on Russia to fulfill its international commitments on respect for human rights. “We are deeply concerned about the containment of the peaceful protesters and continue to monitor the situation closely,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement.
“We urge the Russian government to respect and fulfill its international human rights commitments and release the citizens detained during the peaceful demonstrations,” added the Foreign Ministry.
Aleksei Navalny, 44, was placed in pretrial and pretrial detention on January 17 after returning from Germany, where he was treated for poisoning with a Noviciok nerve agent, accusing the Kremlin.
