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Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader:
»I don't understand what is happening here.
I was brought here from my cell a minute ago to meet with my lawyer.
Now there is a court date.
Strangers film me, others just sit here.
All of this is called the Open Session of the Khimki City Court.
You will examine my detention at the request of the police chief. "
Shortly after this video message, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 30 days in prison.
The video was tweeted by his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh from a police station near Moscow.
Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader:
»Why is the court session taking place in the police station?
I do not understand that.
Why was no one notified?
Why don't I have a subpoena?
I have often seen how the rule of law is ridiculed, but now this grandfather in his bunker is so afraid that the code of criminal procedure will simply be torn up and demonstratively thrown on the dump.
It's impossible what's going on here.
That is lawlessness in the highest degree.
I don't know what else to say. "
The 44-year-old was apparently sentenced directly in the police station in an urgent procedure.
According to his own statements, his lawyers had received a letter about the start of a court hearing in the police building.
However, the hearing was opened without them being able to prepare.
Since Navalny's return to Moscow on Sunday, there was initially no trace of the opposition.
The arrest caused a stir internationally.
American and European politicians are demanding the immediate release of the Kremlin critic, including the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
Moscow is of the opinion that the Navalny case artificially and for no reason received foreign policy feedback.
Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister:
“Yesterday you pounced on news of Navalny's return to the Russian Federation. You can feel the joy in their similar comments. Joy, because Nawalny's return could apparently help Western politicians to distract themselves from the deepest crisis the liberal system has ever found itself in. "
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said there was no evidence of poisoning with the Russian warfare agent Novichok.
He again demanded appropriate evidence from Germany.
Several laboratories, including one from the Bundeswehr, had detected the neurotoxin in Navalny's blood.
The Russian judiciary has arrested and sentenced the Kremlin critic Navalny for violating probation conditions in a previous criminal case in Germany.