Lavrov: West’s reaction to the return of Navalny is intended to divert attention from the crisis

In the West, politicians “happily” seized on the news of Alexei Navalny’s return to Russia, and the comments are “like a blueprint” – as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented on the foreign reaction to the detention of the oppositionist.

“With joy, because it seems to allow Western politicians to think that in this way they will be able to divert attention from the deepest crisis in which the liberal model of development has found itself,” the Russian Foreign Minister explained on the air of the Russia 24 TV channel.

Sergey Lavrov believes that the incident with Navalny has acquired a foreign policy sound artificially and completely illegitimate.

Earlier, the head of the European Council Charles Michel called the detention of blogger Alexei Navalny unacceptable and called on the Russian authorities to release him. Similar statements were made by some other well-known politicians.

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Oppositionist Alexei Navalny returned to Russia on the evening of January 17 from Berlin, where he underwent treatment in a clinic for a long time after a sudden poisoning. The German authorities claim that the victim was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group of chemical warfare agents. Russian doctors who treated Navalny before he was transported to Germany did not find any traces of toxic substances on him.

Initially, the plane with the blogger returning home was supposed to land at the capital’s Vnukovo airport. However, at the last moment, the airport was unable to receive it due to technical problems that arose, and the flight was redirected to Sheremetyevo. Supporters of Navalny gathered in Vnukovo were detained.

After the plane landed at Sheremetyevo airport, Navalny was taken into custody. According to the press service of the Moscow department of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS), he was detained for evading the appearance at the criminal executive inspectorate as a conditionally convicted in the case of embezzlement in the Yves Rocher company. The further measure of restraint for Navalny will be determined by the court, the department stressed. Earlier, the FSIN reported that they intend to seek the replacement of Navalny’s suspended sentence with a real one due to “malicious violations” of the regime.