Kremlin dismisses calls to free Navalny, warns against protests

MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed Western demands to release Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny, saying his calls for mass protests over his arrest were "troubling".

Legal pressure is ramping up against President Vladimir Putin’s best-known domestic critic, who is due in court on defamation charges on Wednesday, as his allies in Russia call for protests in Moscow this weekend.

Navalny, 44, was arrested on Sunday as he returned to Russia from Germany for the first time since he recovered from a near-fatal poisoning with the Soviet-designed Novichok nerve agent in August.

He hit back on Tuesday with the publication of a corruption investigation into a lavish, $1.35 billion property on Russia’s Black Sea coast that he alleged was owned by Putin. In a two-hour long video accompanying the report on his blog, Navalny describes the vast estate as a "state within Russia" in which Putin is "tsar". Russia’s prison service said it had detained Navalny for violating the terms of a suspended sentence he was given in 2014 on fraud charges he says were politically motivated.

A hastily organised court on Monday ordered him jailed for 30 days, prompting associates to call on Russians to take to the streets in central Moscow and march towards the Kremlin on Saturday.

Demonstrations in Moscow have been banned due to coronavirus restrictions, but Navalny’s right-hand man Leonid Volkov said Tuesday the organisers would not seek formal permission from authorities to stage the rally.

Volkov told AFP the prospect that the unauthorised rally could result in detentions for Navalny’s supporters would not deter them, pointing to what he said were multiplying attacks on the opposition. "Putin poisoned Navalny and Navalny is now behind bars," he said.