Free Navalni

Alexei Navalni was detained after landing at Moscow airport SYMPTOMS OF NAVALNI / Europa Press

The arrest last Sunday, as soon as he landed in Moscow, and the improvised judicial hearing yesterday with a 30-day provisional sentence of the Russian opponent Alexei Navalni are the umpteenth confirmation of the unstoppable authoritarian drift of the regime led by Vladimir Putin.

In a gesture of courage, Navalni had chosen to return to Russia after suffering an assassination poisoning attempt last August in Siberia.

Just two days later, he was evacuated to Germany, whose government confirmed the use, without a doubt, of a powerful nerve agent previously used against other people considered enemies by the Russian regime.

Putin has always denied any connection with the event, but he has done so with a tone and words far removed from those used by any democratic ruler.

"Why is it necessary to poison him?

It's ridiculous.

If it had been necessary, it would have been carried to the end, "said the president at the end of the year press conference last December.

What is happening with Navalni is a clear example of political persecution and the West must be resounding in its rejection of this episode.

An emphaticness that cannot be limited to the diplomatic rhetoric correctly expressed yesterday.

The EU must be aware of the development of the

and, if he is not released, it should consider new sanctions of a personal nature to those involved in the Russian repressive apparatus.

Some have already been imposed after the August poisoning - mainly, the travel ban and property blockade - but it is clear that they have not been enough.

The truth is that Navalni found refuge and healing in a Europe that defends values ​​of democracy, pluralism and respect for human rights to which all Russian citizens are also entitled.

It is necessary that neither they feel alone, nor authoritarianism, unpunished.

And Europe weakens when it compromises with actors who trample fundamental rights.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accuses the West of using Navalni as a smokescreen to "divert attention from the deep crisis in which the liberal development model finds itself."

Lavrov would do better to focus on the very serious problems that plague Russia, and the West would do very well to respond vigorously from the values ​​of liberal democracies.

Hopefully, the Biden Administration will be along that line much longer than Trump's.

But, in addition, the

is not only the persecution of a specific individual, but the epitome of a systematic strategy to crush dissent.

Since 2012, Russian law allows the prosecution of human rights organizations that receive funds from abroad for being a "foreign agent" - a term that in the past served to denote "spies" and "subversives".

In 2017 the spectrum was extended to the media, a year later to journalists and bloggers and since last December even more, allowing its application to electoral candidates or analysts.

Precisely in December, for the first time, five people - journalists and activists - were declared foreign agents.

With such a complicated outlook against him, Navalni could have stayed in the West.

May your bravery be appreciated by the Russian citizens.