A file photo from September 29, 2019 shows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a rally in support of political prisoners in Prospekt Sakharova Street in Moscow, Russia. Alexei Navalny is unconscious in hospital after being allegedly poisoned, according to his press secretary.
Sefa Karacan | Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
WASHINGTON – Elected President Joe Biden, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, has demanded the immediate release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was detained on Sunday upon arrival at a Moscow airport.
Earlier on Sunday, Navalny flew from Berlin, Germany, to Russia where he had been recovering for almost half a year since being poisoned last summer. He was arrested during passport control.
Last week, Russian authorities issued a warrant for Navalny’s arrest, alleging he violated the terms of a suspended three-and-a-half-year sentence he received in 2014 for trespassing.
“Mr Navalny must be released immediately, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable,” Sullivan wrote on Twitter.
The White House and the State Department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Sullivan’s call for Navalny’s release comes days before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in. Biden’s incoming administration is expected to increase pressure on Russia.
In the wake of Navalny’s poisoning last year, Biden pledged “to work with our allies and partners to hold the Putin regime accountable for its crimes,” and accused President Donald Trump of not being a tough enough attitude.
A dual group of U.S. senators has called on the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Russia in response to Navalny’s poisoning. Trump, who left office on Wednesday, did not do so.
The United Kingdom and the European Union, close to US allies, moved quickly in October to impose sanctions on Russians and a state research center.
On board the flight back to Moscow, Navalny told reporters that he was feeling well and that the trip home was “the best moment in the last five months”.
“I feel great. I am finally returning to my hometown,” he was quoted as saying by a Reuters report.
Last year, Navalny was medically evacuated from a Russian hospital to Germany after falling ill following reports that something had been added to his tea. Russian doctors who treated Navalny denied that the critic was poisoned in the Kremlin and blamed the low blood glucose level in his comatose state.
In September, the German government said the 44-year-old Russian dissident had been poisoned by a chemical nerve agent, describing the toxicological report as ‘unequivocal evidence’. The nerve agent was in the Novichok family, developed by the Soviet Union.
On the heels of the test results, the White House said it was “deeply concerned” about the case and called the poisoning “completely reprehensible”.
“The United States is deeply concerned about the results released today,” White House spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement at the time. “The poisoning of Alexei Navalny is completely reprehensible. Russia has used the chemical nerve agent Novichok in the past,” he said, referring to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in 2018.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied a role in the poisoning of Navalny and Skripal.
Navalny’s arrest on Sunday is ready to further hamper relations between European leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin is working to secure a gas pipeline project, Nord Stream 2, to Germany.