EU chief calls on Putin to ‘swiftly release’ Navalny

“In my call with president Putin today I reiterated the EU is united in its condemnation of Alexey Navalny’s detention and calls for his immediate release,” Charles Michel wrote on Twitter following the phone call.

According to the EU’s readout of the phone conversation, Michel told Putin that the EU is united in its call on Russia to “swiftly release Mr Navalny and proceed with the investigation into the assassination attempt on him, in full transparency and without further delay.”

He also informed the Russian president about his intention for a strategic debate on EU-Russia relations in the European Council meeting in March.

Kremlin warns over Saturday protests

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that attempts to organize unauthorized rallies and incite young people to participate in them is “unacceptable”.

“The only appropriate stance is in favor of abiding by the law and against the organization of unauthorized activities, let alone attempts to incite young people and children to take part in them," he told reporters.

Navalny, 44, who received treatment in Germany after alleged poisoning, was arrested in the capital Moscow upon his return Sunday evening. Russian authorities said he had violated probation terms from a suspended sentence on a 2014 money-laundering conviction, which Navalny says is political motivated.

Less than 25 hours after his return, Moscow’s Khimki Court ruled that he will remain in custody on a 30-day pre-trial detention.

Navalny is now behind bars in Moscow’s infamous jail Matrosskaya Tishina.

In an Instagram post he wrote through his lawyers on Wednesday, Navalny said: “I’d read about it [the prison] in books and now I’m here. Russian life.”

The prominent opposition figure fell sick last August on a flight to Moscow. After an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, he spent two days in a Russian hospital before being sent to Berlin for treatment.

After tests in several laboratories, German officials said Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, which was also used according to the UK government in a 2018 attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British town of Salisbury.

Russian authorities deny any involvement in the case and contend that chemical weapons have neither been developed nor produced by Russia since the last chemical round was destroyed in 2017.