Moscow – Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was detained on Sunday immediately after his return to Moscow after recovering from nervous agent poisoning, he was taken to a judge on Monday morning at a police station, instead of a normal court, for a hearing to which his lawyers did not have time to stand. prepare. The judge accepted a request from the Russian police for Navalny to be in custody for 30 days.
Navalny criticized the process as a mockery of justice, criticized President Vladimir Putin’s 20-year government and urged his supporters in Russia to take to the streets in protest.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said in a video posted on one of his official YouTube channels. “Don’t be silent. Resist. Take to the streets. Nobody but ourselves will protect us, and we are so many that if we want to achieve something, we will achieve it.”
The video message was recorded in the same room as a police station on the outskirts of Moscow, where the previously improvised hearing took place. Navalny’s lawyers were not allowed to see the politician before the hearing and knew this was going to happen minutes before it started.
The judge gave Navalny’s defense team 30 minutes to familiarize themselves with the materials in the case and another 20 minutes to communicate with the client.
“I’ve seen a lot of mockery of justice … But what’s happening now is impossible,” said Navalny in another cell phone video posted on Twitter by his press secretary before the surprise hearing. “It is the highest degree of illegality.”
When the hearing resumed, Russian police asked the court to formally put Navalny under arrest for 30 days, and the judge granted the request. Navalny’s legal team confirmed that a hearing was scheduled for February 2 for Navalny to face charges for which he was officially detained – for violating the parole terms of a previous suspended sentence.
International outcry
Navalny’s arrest was immediate European condemnation and US and United Nations officials.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the Russian dissident in a statement released on Sunday, and called his arrest, “the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures. “.
President-elect Joe Biden’s national security aide, Jake Sullivan, also called for Navalny’s immediate release.
“The perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held responsible,” said Sullivan. “The Kremlin’s attacks on Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people, who want their voices to be heard.”
In London, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said Russia should explain how Navalny was attacked on a flight inside Russia with a chemical weapon.
“It is amazing that Alexei Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, was arrested by the Russian authorities. He must be released immediately,” said Raab. “Instead of pursuing Navalny, Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil.”
Russian authorities defended his arrest and, on Monday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized Washington for criticizing the way his country is handling judicial issues amid what he suggested was a “crisis” in Western democracy .
“This allows Western politicians to think that in doing so they will be able to divert attention from the deepest crisis facing the liberal model of development,” Lavrov told reporters in response to criticism from Washington and Europe.
Navalny announced his plan to return home from Berlin last week, although a new criminal case has recently been opened against him on charges of fraud. Days earlier, Russia’s prison authorities also filed a petition in court to replace Navalny’s three-and-a-half year suspended sentence with a new prison sentence.
He would know about the risks, but on the plane, he said it was his “best day in five months” because he was going home.
Navalny’s supporters in the Russian opposition regard all legal threats against him as planned political persecution.
The Kremlin’s fiercest critic fell ill on a domestic flight five months ago. After several days of treatment in Siberia, he was eventually taken into a coma to Berlin, where toxicological reports confirmed that he was poisoned with the same type of nervous agent Novichok used in a 2018 attack on a former Russian double agent in England.
On a interview with “60 Minutes” Correspondent Lesley Stahl, Navalny blamed the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for his poisoning.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m sure he is responsible.”
The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
Navanly was traveling with his wife and a team of allies on Sunday when he returned to Moscow. The others were allowed to pass freely through border control, where Navalny was taken into custody after kissing his wife goodbye.
CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata and Tucker Reals contributed to this report.