Russia brushes off sanctions calls by West over Navalny detention

Russia has shrugged off calls by certain European states for sanctions against Moscow over Alexei Navalny, not heeding the West's calls to release the opposition figure, who returned to the country following recuperation in Germany from alleged poisoning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Tuesday that Navalny’s case was a matter for the prison service to decide about, and required no special intervention from the government.

Western states have called on Moscow to immediately release Navalny. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have even urged the European Union to impose sanctions against Moscow over the case.

Peskov said that “we hear” the calls from the European Union, the United States, and their allies, “but we aren’t going to take them into account.”

“We are talking about the fact that a Russian citizen has not followed Russian law. This is entirely an internal matter, and we won’t allow anyone to interfere,” the Russian spokesperson said.

Russian police detained Navalny on arrival at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport from Germany on Sunday, five months after he was transferred to a hospital in Berlin to be treated for what the West alleged had been a nerve agent attack by Moscow.

Russia denied the allegation, describing it as a provocation of Western intelligence services aimed at justifying more sanctions against Russia.

Russian court orders Navalny held in police custody until mid-February

Navalny, 45, was taken ill on a domestic flight on August 20 last year.

Navalny, who was arrested for violating the terms of a suspended sentence he initially received in 2014, would remain behind bars until mid-February, awaiting trial, a court said on Monday.

His detention has prompted reaction from the West, which called on the Putin government to immediately release him.

Peskov, however, said that the opposition figure’s case “has nothing to do with the president of the Russian Federation.”

Putin’s spokesman also rejected a recent allegation that the president owned a secret luxurious property on Russia’s southern Black Sea coast.

The Navalny team released a video less than 24 hours after his arrest, detailing a lavish compound worth more than one billion dollars in the resort town of Gelendzhik.

Navalny alleges in the 113-minute YouTube video that the property was built for Putin by associates and called it “the biggest bribe in history.”

Peskov said “this is not true.”

“I can say straight away that this is a broken record. Many years ago, we had previously explained that Putin does not have any palaces in Gelendzhik,” he said, referring to a 2012 report by BBC alleging that the mountainside mansion belonged to Putin.

The opulent residence, described as “the most expensive palace in the world,” allegedly includes a church, an amphitheater, a tea house, and a helipad.

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