• Alexey Navalny arrested at the Moscow airport.

    US and EU: free him

  • Navalny landed in Moscow: airport changed at the last moment, police arrest 21 supporters

  • Navalny announces: "On January 17 I will return to Russia"

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January 18, 2021 "Alexey's lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, stood in front of the Khimki Police Department for an hour, presented her warrant and credentials to the police. Despite this, they refused to let her in without giving no explanation ". Kira Yarmish, a spokesperson for Navalny, wrote it on Twitter. Yarmish then added a little while ago that "Mikhailova and Vadim Kobzev were admitted to the department but still couldn't see Aleksey".



Yarmish adds that "no explanation" is given for what is happening. "Aleksey has been under arrest for 14 hours, he has not yet been allowed to call, although all detainees have this right. He is now deprived of the right to defense." Ivan Zhdanov, director of the anti-corruption foundation in Navalny, also complains that lawyers have been blocked from accessing the blogger, "despite yesterday they promised that they would be admitted from 9 am. They don't even give him food. Nobody says exactly. what are the legal reasons behind the arrest ". Kyra Yarmish and Ivan Zhdanov's tweets were also relaunched from Navalny's personal account.



EU, von der Leyen: "Russian authorities must release him immediately"

The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen condemned the arrest of Alexei Navalny yesterday by the Russian authorities, on his return to Moscow. "The Russian authorities must release him immediately and guarantee his safety - wrote von der Leyen on Twitter -. The detention of political opponents is contrary to Russia's international commitments". The EU executive's president then called for "thorough and independent investigation into the attack on the life of Alexei Navalny", stating that the EU will monitor the situation closely. "



Sassoli:" Stop it offended the international community "

Even the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli called for Navalny's "immediate release": "Navalny's arrest in Moscow is an offense to the international community, to Europe which helped save his life. We ask the Russian authorities for his immediate release - Sassoli wrote on Twitter -. We are ready to invite him to the European Parliament. "



Berlin calls for" immediate release "

Germany asks Moscow for" immediate release "of Alexei Navalny, arrested yesterday on his return to Russia. His arrest, said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas , "is totally incomprehensible." Even the president of the EPP group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber expresses concern over the arrest of the Russian opponent: "After Putin's regime failed to assassinate Alexei Navalny in August, we have good reasons to fear for his life ".   



" We need strong political pressure to ensure his safety, "adds Weber on Twitter, referring to EU High Representative Jose Borrell." The EPP calls for an urgent debate in the European Parliament this week ", concludes the German. 



United Kingdom" deeply concerned "about the arrest

The British government has made it known that it is" deeply concerned "about the arrest of the opponent and Russian Aleksei Navalny, stopped Sunday evening on his return to Moscow immediately after the landing of his flight from Berlin. The UK government has called the arrest of Navalny, the charismatic blogger who miraculously recovered from the poisoning in August, "horrible". Navalny pointed the finger at the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, as the instigator of his poisoning.



Lavrov: "The West wants to divert attention from the crisis of liberalism"

The "enthusiastic" reaction of Western countries to Alexey Navalny's return to Russia is due to the desire to divert attention from the "profound crisis" in which "the liberal development model ". This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov during his press conference at the beginning of the year, responding to the outcry from European and US diplomacy at the arrest of the Russian opposition leader, arrested on Sunday evening on his return to Germany after the poisoning suffered last August.



"Moscow has never received any evidence from the West that could support its baseless accusations against Russia," Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said at a press conference. The minister recalled the statements regarding the alleged Russian interference in the American elections, the alleged Russian involvement in the Skripal case, the Malaysian Boeing MH17 accident, the alleged poisoning of blogger Alexey Navalny. "In each case cited, as well as in other cases where we are accused of something, we have never been able to obtain any evidence to support these unsubstantiated claims. The only thing we heard was' highly probable ',' no one else has a motive, 'or' only you have the capacity and therefore you are guilty and we don't have to prove anything ', "Lavrov said. "They just don't provide facts that honest people always base their arguments on." Tass reports it.