Germany calls for immediate release of Navalny and his supporters

Germany on Monday reiterated its call on Moscow to immediately release Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, along with his more than 3,000 supporters who were arrested across Russia last Saturday.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters in Brussels that he and his EU counterparts “agreed very quickly that both the arrest of Alexei Navalny as well as the arrest of many who were peacefully demonstrating in Russia must be met with their immediate release.”

The EU will for now go for a step-by-step approach with the Kremlin, with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell going to Moscow to make clear the bloc’s anger at Navalny’s arrest, Maas added.

“We have made very clear what we think of the detention of Alexei Navalny: nothing. Only his immediate release will be the right answer for us.”

In central Moscow on Saturday, where Reuters reporters estimated up to 40,000 pro-democracy demonstrators had gathered in one of the biggest unauthorised rallies for years, police were seen roughly detaining people, bundling them into nearby vans.

Germany and France, the EU’s main powers, will be central to deciding if the bloc goes ahead with punitive measures on Russia, a big oil and gas exporter to the bloc.

via Reuters