MOSCOW • Russia has vowed to ignore US and European calls to free jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he urged Western governments to sanction key allies of President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny identified eight people as potential targets for punitive measures, including billionaire Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich and tycoon Alisher Usmanov as well as top officials, in a list released by a close associate of the activist.
A Russian court on Monday ordered Navalny to be held in custody for 30 days. He was detained on Sunday upon arrival from Germany where he had been recovering from a poisoning attack. He faces up to 31/2 years in prison at a hearing set for Feb 2 on charges that he breached the terms of a suspended sentence.
As Navalny was led out of a police station on Monday, he told supporters that the only thing they needed to be afraid of was their own fear.
"Don't be afraid, take to the streets. Don't go out for me, go out for yourself and your future," he said in a video posted to Twitter.
His supporters plan to rally across the country on Saturday, and an application for a 10,000-strong meeting at the end of this month has been lodged with the Moscow authorities.
The 44-year-old activist called his treatment illegal and accused President Putin of throwing the criminal code out the window in fear.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the prosecution was a "domestic matter" conducted in line with Russian law.
"We don't intend to take this international opinion into account," he said of the US and European calls to release the activist.
Navalny's appeals to supporters to protest may be a violation of Russian law, he added.
Mr Peskov also dismissed as nonsense the notion that Mr Putin fears Navalny. "Different statements about someone being afraid of someone else are absolutely nonsense," he said.
Navalny, an outspoken critic of Mr Putin, was stopped by police at passport control as he landed in Moscow from Berlin, where he had gone for treatment after the August nerve-agent attack he and Western governments blame on the Kremlin, a version of events the Kremlin rejects.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have said they wanted the European Union to respond with sanctions against Russia for detaining Navalny, whose foundation specialises in investigations into alleged official corruption.
Some of the foundation's targets have taken legal action and some critics have upbraided Navalny in the past for espousing what they say are overly nationalist views, something he rejects.
The eight Russians Navalny named and believed should be hit with Western sanctions are businessmen, bankers, government ministers and a state-backed journalist.
One of the possible targets of any new penalties would be the US$11.6 billion (S$15.4 billion) Nord Stream 2 project to build a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. Berlin has supported the project, saying it is a commercial venture, and a government spokesman on Monday said that had not changed.
The foreign ministers of Germany, Britain, France and Italy had earlier called for Navalny's release as did the United Nations human rights office.
Mr Jake Sullivan, one of US President-elect Joe Biden's top aides, has criticised the arrest.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
