Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov arrives for a meeting of Russian President and his Serbian counterpart in Sochi, Russia, on Dec 4, 2019. (SHAMIL ZHUMATOV / POOL / AFP)
MOSCOW - The Kremlin said on Tuesday it would not heed calls by some Western countries for sanctions over Russia’s detention of poisoned opposition politician Alexei Navalny because his case was a purely domestic matter.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia want the European Union to respond with sanctions against Moscow.
“We hear these statements, but we cannot and don’t plan to take these into account,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
“This is about a Russian citizen not complying with Russian law. This is an absolutely domestic matter and we will not allow anyone to interfere in it.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Navalny’s calls for Russians to take to the streets over his detention were alarming, but that the Kremlin did not fear mass protests
Peskov said Navalny had genuine questions to answer about violating his parole conditions for a suspended prison sentence.
A Russian court on Monday ordered Navalny held in custody for 30 days. He’d been detained the previous day upon arrival from Germany where he’d been recovering from a poisoning attack. He faces as much as 3 1/2 years in prison at a hearing set for Feb 2 on charges he breached the terms of a suspended sentence.
Peskov said Navalny’s calls for Russians to take to the streets over his detention were alarming, but that the Kremlin did not fear mass protests.
The speaker of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, accused Navalny of acting on behalf of foreign governments.
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“Our task is to prevent foreign meddling, whoever does it,” he told legislators, RIA Novosti reported.
Navalny was stopped by police at passport control as he landed in Moscow from Berlin, where he’d gone for treatment after the August nerve-agent attack.
His detention threatens a new round of tensions with the West, which demanded his immediate release, and he called on supporters in Russia to take to the streets in protest.
In this image grab made from video released by Navalny Life youtube channel, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks as he waits for a court hearing, in a police station in Khimki, outside in Moscow, Russia, Jan 18, 2021. (PHOTO / NAVALNY LIFE YOUTUBE CHANNEL VIA AP)
Navalny, who’s being held in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison, was defiant at Monday’s court hearing.
He will spend 14 days in a three-person cell alone because of COVID-19 quarantine rules after his arrival from Germany, prison ombudsman Alexey Melnikov, who visited him in the jail, wrote in Facebook.
READ MORE: Russia bars more EU officials over Navalny sanctions
Prosecutors argued Navalny violated the terms of the 2015 suspended sentence by failing to make required check-ins with authorities, including while he was recovering in Germany.
He also could face separate charges of embezzlement punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Supporters plan to rally across the country this Saturday, and an application for a 10,000-strong meeting at the end of this month has been lodged in Moscow. Authorities said they would not grant a permit for a protest in the capital, Interfax reported.
The foreign ministers of Germany, Britain, France and Italy had earlier called for Navalny's release as did the UN human rights office. Jake Sullivan, one of US President-elect Joe Biden's top aides, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have criticized the arrest. The Russian Foreign Ministry brushed off the criticism.
With Bloomberg inputs
