Icon: enlarge
Still in freedom: Kremlin opponent Alexej Navalny in the plane on the way to Moscow
Photo: Mstyslav Chernov / dpa
The Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was not in Russia for five months.
On Sunday he was arrested on his return just minutes after his summons.
Now politicians from the EU, the USA and Germany are calling on the Russian authorities to release the 44-year-old immediately.
The human rights organization Amnesty International classified the prominent opponent of President Vladimir Putin as a political prisoner of Russia.
Navalny was last in Germany since the summer, where he recovered from the attack in Russia with the neurotoxin Novitschok.
The Russian prison system justified the arrest of Navalny with alleged violations of probation conditions in a previous criminal case.
Therefore Navalny was put out to be searched.
Until the decision of the court he remains in custody, it said.
The trial is on January 29th.
His lawyer was not allowed to accompany him after he was arrested.
"The United States strongly condemns Russia's decision to arrest Alexei Navalny," said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"We note with great concern that his arrest is the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition and independent voices critical of the Russian authorities." He called for Navalny's "immediate and unconditional release." «.
Biden's future security advisor calls for release
The future US security advisor Jake Sullivan called for Nawalny's immediate release and accused the Kremlin of attacks on human rights.
In addition, those responsible for Navalny's poisoning in Siberia would have to be held accountable on August 20.
There was also criticism from the European Union.
"The Russian authorities have to accept Alexej Navalny's rights and release him immediately," said EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell on Twitter.
EU Council Chairman Charles Michel and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also criticized the imprisonment as unlawful.
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania also demanded the immediate release of Navalny.
The arrest was "completely unacceptable," said a statement from the three EU and NATO countries bordering on Russia.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to speak on the case at a press conference this Monday.
Olaf Scholz criticizes Russian "state authority"
Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) described Nawalny's arrest as "unlawful".
Navalny was a "courageous man" who had been wronged.
"A murder attack has been committed on him and he should be protected by the state and not arrested," said the finance minister on Sunday evening in the "Bild" talk "The right questions".
He is entitled to "move around Russia as a free man and apply for political mandates."
That should not lead to "the state authority doing everything against him."
Navalny himself described the proceedings against him as a political staging.
"The truth is on my side," he said.
Navalny's team speaks of new attempts to silence the prominent opponent of President Vladimir Putin.
They certified Putin into "panic" and "hysteria".
The prison system now wants to convert Nawalny's suspended sentence into a real prison sentence.
Russian lawyers also pointed out that Russia violated international law with the procedure.
Russian FSB is behind the attack
Navalny was treated in Germany for the attack with the neurotoxin Novitschok, which is banned as a chemical weapon.
Russia denies that there was a crime and therefore refuses to investigate as long as there is evidence.
However, laboratories of the German armed forces as well as in France, Sweden and at the Organization for a Ban on Chemical Weapons (OPCW) proved the illegal warfare agent Novichok.
Research by SPIEGEL with Bellingcat and other partners had shown that at least eight FSB agents were apparently involved in the poison attack and had followed him for months or years.
After the attack, Navalny himself had pretended to be the assistant to a Putin adviser - and called an agent from the domestic intelligence service FSB.
So he learned how exactly he should be killed.
Accordingly, he blames a "killer squad" of the FSB operating under the orders of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
The EU has imposed sanctions on representatives of the Russian power apparatus for the internationally criticized crime.
Icon: The mirror
mrc / dpa
