The Kremlin is not bowing to international pressure to release Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
A spokesperson for the Russian government dismissed the international calls and said Navalny’s 30-day detainment for not returning to the country ahead of the deadline given to him by the prison service was an intra-country matter.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “we can’t and are not going to take these statements into account,” and added, “We are talking about a fact of non-compliance with the Russian law by a citizen of Russia. This is an absolutely internal matter, and we will not allow anyone to interfere in it and do not intend to listen to such statements,” according to the Associated Press.
Navalny, according to the prison service, was in violation of the terms of a suspended prison sentence he is serving following a 2014 conviction. He was also accused of evading the supervision of Russia’s criminal inspection authority. The suspended 3 1/2-year prison sentence was over a theft case, which Navalny stated was politically motivated. His probation period expired on Dec. 30.
His flight back to Russia was his first trip back since he was poisoned last summer. After initially being held by doctors in Russia, he was released to Germany, where investigators determined he was poisoned with a Novichok-class nerve agent, a potent toxin produced in Russia since the time of the Soviet Union. Navalny recovered in Germany up until his return on Sunday.
While Navalny and the U.S. State Department accused Russian operatives of poisoning him, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pushed back on those claims, arguing that if Russia wanted Navalny dead, they would’ve likely “finished it.”
On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation that would aim to hold Russia accountable by imposing sanctions on Russian officials complicit in any supposed violation of International law.
“The attack on Alexei Navalny puts a spotlight on the corruption and lawlessness of the Putin regime,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, one of the co-sponsors of the bill. “We must hold the perpetrators accountable for this cowardly attack, which was an attempt to silence dissent and suppress the people’s fight for freedom and democracy.”
