Russia tells Kremlin critic Navalny to return or face jail
December 29, 2020
Russia's federal prison service has given Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny an ultimatum that he either report to its office by Tuesday morning or face jail if he comes back to Russia after the deadline.
The Russian opposition leader has been recuperating in Germany after his August poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent, which he has blamed on the Kremlin. Russia has denied the allegation.
The Federal Prison Service (FSIN) issued a statement on Monday accusing Navalny of violating the terms of a suspended prison sentence he is still serving out in relation to a conviction from 2014.
The prison service in its statement said that an article by doctors from Berlin's Charite hospital, published in British medical journal The Lancet, shows that Navalny has fully recovered. "Therefore the convicted man is not fulfilling all of the obligations placed on him by the court, and is evading the supervision of the Criminal Inspectorate," the FSIN said.
'They were given an order, they are fulfilling it'
Navalny reacted to the ultimatum saying that the FSIN's reference to the article indicates acceptance on the part of Moscow that he was poisoned. "That means that the state has officially recognized the poisoning,'' he tweeted. "And where is the criminal case then?"
His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, accused the prison service of acting on the Kremlin's orders, adding that Navalny was still convalescing. "There's no way he could appear at the Moscow Criminal Inspectorate tomorrow. But does the FSIN really care about common sense? They were given an order, they are fulfilling it," she said on Twitter.
Navalny, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell into a coma on board a flight from Siberia to Moscow in August.
He was airlifted to Berlin two days later.
Labs in Germany, France and Sweden and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons ascertained that he was exposed to the nerve agent. Russia, however, claims that the doctors who initially treated Navalny in Siberia found no sign of poison.
dvv/sri (AP, Reuters)