Navalny urges Russians to ‘take to the streets’ after his arrest

By AFP 18 January 2021, 4:59 pm

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Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny urges Russians to stage mass anti-government protests during a court hearing after his arrest on arrival in Moscow from Germany.

“Do not be silent. Resist. Take to the streets,” the 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner says in a video posted on YouTube from the police station where the hearing was convened following his arrest in a Moscow airport yesterday.

In this file photo taken on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny takes part in a march in memory of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, Russia (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

The European Union has also joined international calls for Navalny’s release as Baltic states and lawmakers press for fresh sanctions against the Kremlin.

The critic of President Vladimir Putin was arrested at the airport in Moscow as he returned to his homeland from Germany, where he received treatment after a near-fatal poisoning by a nerve agent.

A judge at a hastily organized hearing in the police station where he was being held ordered Navalny be kept in detention until February 15, aides to the anti-corruption campaigner say.