Russian court orders Navalny held for 30 days

A judge ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be jailed for 30 days, before a decision that could put him behind bars for years, after an extraordinary, rushed court hearing Monday held inside a police station within a day of his return from Germany.

Moments after the judge announced her decision, Navalny called for protests in a video message to his supporters. One of his top aides, Leonid Volkov, said Navalny’s nationwide network was preparing to organise demonstrations across Russia on Saturday.

“Do not be afraid,” Navalny said in the video, which he had recorded in a makeshift courtroom set up in a police station meeting room. “Take to the streets. Don’t do it for me; do it for yourselves and for your future.”

The fast-paced events came the day after Navalny, who spent months abroad recovering from a near-deadly poisoning, was arrested at a Moscow airport on accusations of violating the terms of an earlier suspended prison sentence. He spent the night at a nearby police station without access to a lawyer.

President Vladimir Putin has long sought to minimize Navalny’s significance, but the decision on how harshly to crack down on Navalny and his supporters in the coming weeks could have far-reaching implications for the Kremlin. On Monday, condemnation of Navalny’s arrest poured in from the United Nations and just about every major Western capital, but the Russian government breezily dismissed the criticism.

“We are not a lady coming out to a ball,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a news conference, responding to a question about the damage done to Russia’s international image.

A lawyer for Navalny, Vadim Kobzev, said he was notified of the hearing minutes before it started.

Kobzev said Navalny had been ordered jailed until Feb 15, pending another hearing on charges of violating the terms of a 3 1/2-year suspended prison sentence he received in 2014. Europe’s top human rights court said Navalny was unfairly convicted of financial crimes in that case.

Russia’s prison service said Navalny repeatedly violated parole, and it has petitioned to convert the suspended sentence into real jail time. If the court approves the petition, Navalny could remain in prison until July 2024 — after Russia’s next presidential election, which is scheduled to take place that March and in which Putin could run again.

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