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Dominic Raab has called for the immediate release of Putin critic Alexei Navalny.
The foreign secretary has joined a number of prominent politicians who have condemned Navalny’s arrest upon his return to Russia after he was poisoned with a nerve agent last year.
Raab said: “It is appalling that Alexei Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by the Russian authorities. He must be released immediately.
Chancellor Dominic Raab said the arrest was “shocking.” Stock Image
“Instead of going after Mr. Navalny, Russia should explain how a chemical weapon was used on Russian soil.”
Mr. Navalny was detained in Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport Sunday, after spending five months in Germany recovering from poisoning with a novichok nerve agent.
The 44-year-old, who is one of Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critics, blames Moscow for the attack that nearly killed him, although the Kremlin denies any involvement.
His arrest minutes after landing was highly anticipated because Russia’s prison service said he had violated the probation terms of a suspended sentence on a 2014 embezzlement conviction.
He is being detained at a police station in Khimki, on the outskirts of Moscow.
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Navalny moment is arrested after landing in Russia
Crowds of supporters waited to welcome Navalny home
The arrest has prompted international calls for his release, with leaders from Europe and the United States condemning Moscow.
On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russian authorities should immediately release Navalny and “guarantee his safety.”
In a statement shared on Twitter, he added: “The arrest of political opponents goes against Russia’s international commitments.
“We will closely monitor the situation.”
Earlier, Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News that the UK government was “very concerned” about Navalny’s safety.
He said: “The Foreign Secretary will say more about this, but we are very concerned for the welfare and safety of Alexei Navalny.
“And of course we have to make sure that the Russian government answers why a poison was used.”
Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, said Washington “strongly condemns” the decision to arrest Mr navalny and called his arrest “the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures and independent voices criticizing the Russian authorities.”
He added on Twitter that he was “deeply concerned” by the move.
“Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor do they see the need to commit acts of violence or unjustly detain political opponents,” he said.
The election of President-elect Joe Biden as national security adviser called on the Russian authorities to release him.
“Mr. Navalny must be released immediately, and the perpetrators of the scandalous attack on his life must be held accountable,” Jake Sullivan said in a tweet.
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‘They tried to kill me,’ says Kremlin critic
Charles Michel, President of the European Council, called Navalny’s arrest “unacceptable” and demanded his immediate release.
The French Foreign Ministry and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas echoed him.
Mr. Maas said: “Russia is bound by its own constitution and by international obligations on the principle of the rule of law and the protection of civil rights.
“These principles, of course, must apply to Alexei Navalny as well. He should be immediately released.”
Russia quickly dismissed the criticism.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the expressions of outrage from Western countries were designed to distract their citizens from their own internal troubles.
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook: “Respect international law, do not invade the national laws of sovereign states and address problems in your own country.”
Leaving Berlin on Sunday, Navalny said he did not believe he would be arrested because he had “every right” to return to his home country.
The arrest raises tensions in Russia as it approaches this year’s national parliament elections, in which Navalny’s organization is expected to be active in trying to defeat pro-Kremlin candidates.
“This is a true act of courage for Alexei Navalny to return to Russia, as government agents have already tried to kill him once,” Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth tweeted.
“But it is understandable that he wants to be part of the pro-democracy movement in Russia, not a dissident in exile.”
Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20.
He was transferred to a Berlin hospital two days later.
Laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden tested the substance to which he was exposed.
It was established that he was poisoned with a Soviet-era novichok nerve agent, the same type of substance used against Sergei and Yulia Skripal, a former Russian double agent and his daughter, in a 2018 poisoning in Salisbury.
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