The Kremlin critic was arrested on his return to Russia from Germany in January. He is serving time in prison, following a trial that Navalny dismissed as a tool to silence him.
The European Court of Human Rights has called for Russia to release outspoken Kremlin critic and opposition leader Alexei NavalnyImage: Babuskinsky District Court/AP Photo/picture alliance
"The Court grants an interim measure in favor of Aleksei Navalny and asks to the Government of Russia to release him," the European rights court said in a press release, using a different spelling of Navalny's name.
Navalny's team had also shared a copy of a letter addressed to Navalny's lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, from the ECHR informing her of the decision and the plan to notify the government in Russia.
The ECHR is the international court of the Council of Europe, Europe's main human rights forum, of which Russia is a member.
The case against Navalny:
A Moscow court on February 2 found Navalny guilty of disobeying the terms of his probation over a 2014 money laundering conviction.
But Europe’s top human rights court had already ruled in 2017 that Navalny’s 2014 conviction for fraud had been "arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable."
It ordered Russia to pay him compensation.
During the trial in February, Navalny said the legal actions against him were designed to intimidate people.
Alexei Navalny is one of Russia's most prominent opposition leaders, having spearheaded protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has been imprisoned in Russia since 2021.
Image: Imago Images/Itar-Tass/S. Fadeichev
Face of Russia's opposition
The lawyer-turned-political campaigner has been among the most prominent figures of Russia's opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Navalny came to prominence in 2008, when his blog exposing malpractice in Russian politics and among the country's major state-owned companies came to public attention. Revelations published on his blog even led to resignations, a rarity in Russian politics.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/V. Sharifulin
Disputed parliamentary elections
In 2011 Navalny was arrested for the first time. He ended up spending 15 days in prison for his role at a rally outside the State Duma in Moscow. A recent parliamentary election victory for Putin's United Russia had been marred by instances of ballot stuffing, reported by demonstrators on social media. Upon his release, Navalny pledged to continue the protest movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Stenin
Second jail term
After being reelected president in 2012, Putin ordered Russia's Investigative Committee to launch a criminal inquiry into Navalny's past. The following year the campaigner was charged and sentenced again, this time for five years, for alleged embezzlement in the city of Kirov. However, he was released the following day pending affirmation from a higher court. The sentence was later suspended.
Image: Reuters
Anti-Kremlin platform grows
Despite being embroiled in legal troubles, Navalny was allowed to run in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election. A second-place finish behind Putin ally Sergei Sobyanin was seen as an overwhelming success and galvanized the Russian opposition movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Navalny takes to social media
His anti-Kremlin rhetoric led Navalny to be banned from appearing on Russian state-owned television. That forced him to deliver his political message over social media and his blog. His talent for public speaking, punchy use of language and humorous mockery of Putin and his loyalists mobilized a legion of young followers.
Image: Alexei Navalny/Youtube
Presidential ambitions
In December 2016, the opposition leader announced the formal start of his campaign to run for the Russian presidency in March 2018. However, repeated accusations of corruption, which his supporters say are politically motivated, ultimately barred him from running for public office.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/K. Kudryavtsev
Moscow's biggest protests in 6 years
In February 2017, anti-corruption rallies across dozens of Russian cities led to the arrests of over 1,000 demonstrators, including Navalny. The protests, believed to have been the largest in the Russian capital since 2012, were spurred by a report published by Navalny linking Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to a property empire valued at billions of euros. Navalny was released 15 days later.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Evgeny Feldman for Alexey Navalny's campaign
Physically assaulted
Navalny was assaulted and hospitalized in April 2017 after being hit in the eye with a chemical green dye. The attack permanently damaged his right cornea. Navalny accused Russian authorities of stopping him from seeking medical treatment abroad due to the embezzlement conviction against him. He was eventually permitted by the Kremlin human rights council to travel to Spain for eye surgery.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/E. Feldman
Repeated arrests
In 2018, Navalny was jailed for 30 days. After his release in September, he faced another 20-day stint. In April 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Russia had violated Navalny's rights by holding him under house arrest for most of 2014 during the Kirov embezzlement case.
Image: Reuters/M. Shemetov
Alleged poisoning
In July 2019, only weeks after being released from a 10-day jail sentence, Navalny was again jailed for 30 days for violating Russia's strict protest laws. The opposition leader accused Russia of poisoning him with an allergic agent while in jail.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/navalny.com
Raids and frozen assets
Using YouTube and social media, Navalny had amassed a following of millions by late December 2019. Then police raided his Anti-Corruption Foundation headquarters (pictured), detaining him in the process. His staff said officials wanted to confiscate their tech equipment. Just a few months later, in March, Navalny reported that his bank accounts and those of his family members had been frozen.
Image: Reuters/FBK Handout
A plane — and a coma
On August 20, Navalny's spokesperson announced the activist became violently ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing, and Navalny was rushed to a hospital in Russia's Omsk and later evacuated to Berlin's Charite clinic (pictured). Doctors said he was in a coma. Navalny's associates claimed he had been poisoned and pointed to previous attacks on the activist.
Image: Reuters/C. Mang
Back from the brink
Navalny was taken out of the coma less than three weeks later and was said to be responsive. Not long afterwards, he was posting on Instagram, saying he was slowly regaining strength following weeks of only being "technically alive." The German government said labs in France and Sweden both confirmed that Navalny had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
Navalny had promised to return to Russia and he did so, despite warnings that he would be arrested. He was taken into police custody shortly after arriving in Moscow. The dissident had said he was "not afraid of anything." He was ordered to spend two years and eight months in a penal colony for violating terms of his probation while recovering in Germany from his poisoning.
Image: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images
Further charges and years behind bars
Since being imprisoned in 2021, Navalny has faced even more charges and trials: in 2022, he was sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court, charges his supporters say are fabricated. Appearing via video from prison during a court hearing this spring, Navalny said he was now being charged with new alleged crimes that would further extend his time in prison.
Image: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo/picture alliance
15 images1 | 15
Will Navalny now be released?
The ECHR called for his release as an interim measure under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court.
Rule 39 is for people who face "an imminent risk of irreparable harm," according to a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) description.
Rule 39 individual interim measures are binding for the period during which they remain in force, the UNHCR toolkit states.
But Russia's justice minister dismissed the court's demand as "unfounded and unlawful." The Foreign Ministry dismissed the order as part of Western meddling in the country's domestic affairs.
The Russian Justice Ministry previously warned: "The ECHR can't substitute a national court or cancel its verdict," the statement added.
Why is this a 'unique situation'?
In the past, Moscow has abided by the ECHR's rulings awarding compensation to Russian citizens who have contested verdicts in Russian courts.
But "this is an absolutely unique situation" Galina Arapova, director and senior media lawyer at the NGO Mass Media Defense Center (Russia) told DW.
"I can’t remember any other example when the European Court demanded the release of a person charged with a criminal offense — and Navalny is formally serving a criminal sentence" Arapova said..
"The application of Rule 39 of the Rules of Court is an urgent measure. Such measures are usually taken when for example a person faces extradition to another country where this person would be in danger. Previously urgent measures were only taken upon request of the defense lawyer of the person in danger, when their case was connected with an extradition," Arapova added.
The Council of Europe has very "limited" ways to pressure Russia to carry out the decision now, apart from deciding to expel it for failing to fulfill obligations, DW's Russia Correspondent Emily Sherwin tweeted, citing Arapova. "That would be very bad for the people of Russia," who often rely on the ECHR for justice.
Who is Alexei Navalny?
The 44-year-old is a Russian lawyer, anti-corruption activist and opposition leader.
He has tried for over a decade to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin, using his YouTube channel to expose corruption and even launching a presidential run against Putin.
