Kremlin defends thousands of arrests at pro-Navalny protests
- par Thibaud Popelin
- dans Monde
- — Fév 4, 2021
The Kremlin has said that thousands of arrests at protests against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny were a necessary response to the rallies.
A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Navalny to prison for two years and eight months, finding that he violated the terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany, a ruling that caused global outrage and triggered new protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Like Mr Putin, Mr Peskov avoided mentioning Mr Navalny by name.
Massive protests erupted after Mr Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner, was arrested on January 17 upon returning from his five-month convalescence in Germany from nerve agent poisoning, which he has blamed on the Kremlin.
She thanked supporters on Instagram, saying: "There are so many good, strong and fair people who support Alexei and myself that there is no way to step back and there is nothing to fear. We will win anyway".
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Moscow to immediately free Mr Navalny and those who were detained during protests.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert reiterated the German leader's call for Mr Navalny's immediate release on Wednesday and an end to the police crackdown against anti-government protesters.
Mr Navalny gestures to his wife Yulia during the hearing
"The European Court of Human Rights has already determined, in a 2017 judgement, that the conviction on which this sentence is based was arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable".
Meanwhile, the German government has said it was not ruling out further sanctions against Russian Federation over the verdict.
Mr Lavrov said he would present European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell with relevant videos to prove that point when he visited Moscow later this week.
Following Mr Navalny's arrest, authorities have moved swiftly to silence and isolate his allies.
The Kremlin also says police had been right to use force to break up protests over his imprisonment.
Asked about the harsh treatment of thousands of detainees, who spent many hours on police buses and were put in overcrowded cells, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that they have to bear responsibility for joining the unsanctioned protests.
