Russian prosecutors seeking jail term for Navalny

Russian state prosecutors are seeking a 3.5-year sentence for opposition politician Alexei Navalny, alleging parole violations. 

Authorities arrested Navalny, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, upon his return to Russia last month after he spent months recovering from nerve agent attack on a Russian flight. He is serving 30 days in prison.   

Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office labeled the court’s petition as legal and justified, noting it will ask for the request to be granted after the court reviews it on Tuesday, Reuters reported Monday.

The 44-year-old Putin critic and his allies have requested his supporters demonstrate outside of the court in Moscow on Tuesday, according to news reports, two days after more than 5,100 Russians, including 80 journalists, were arrested during rallies in Moscow protesting his detainment.

Among those arrested were Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya, who was fined about $265 for participating in the protest, according to The Associated Press. 

The treatment of Navalny and his supporters has sparked international criticism, including from the U.S., where Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement condemning Moscow’s “harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists.”

Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also blasted the arrests in a Monday joint statement, calling for their immediate release. 

“The United States and broader transatlantic community stand in solidarity with the Russian people who — despite the threat of violent arrest and freezing cold — continue to demand their fundamental human rights and due process of law be respected and the Putin regime be held accountable for its shameless corruption,” the lawmakers said.

But Russia dismissed the international concerns.

“We are not prepared to accept or heed American statements about this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Reuters. 

“There can be no conversation with hooligans and provocateurs, the law should be applied with the utmost severity,” Peskov added. 

Vladimir Ashurkov, an ally to Navalny, sent a letter to President Biden over the weekend asking for sanctions against Putin’s allies, something Russia warned the U.S. against pursuing.