Moscow

Britain is worried about the safety of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he was detained on return to Moscow, British Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday.

“Russia is bound by its own constitution and by international obligations to the principle of the rule of law and to the protection of civil rights,” Maas said in a statement. “These principles must, of course, be applied to Alexei Navalny as well. He should be released immediately.”

The team of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday called for the release of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny after he was detained upon arrival at a Moscow airport, as the Trump administration remained quiet on the subject.

Police detained prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on arrival at a Moscow airport on Sunday after he flew home to Russia from Germany for the first time since he was poisoned last summer.

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny flew home to Russia on Sunday despite Russian authorities’ stated desire to arrest him and potentially jail him for years, his plane from Berlin landing at a different Moscow airport from the one it was meant to fly to.

Brazil’s health regulator is seeking further data on Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine before considering its approval for emergency use.

Germany has given transcripts of interviews with Alexei Navalny to Russia as part of Moscow’s probe into the poisoning of the Kremlin critic, a Justice Ministry spokesman said, demanding a thorough investigation into the crime.

The second batch of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine arrived in Argentina on Saturday, allowing the South American country to apply the second part of the two-dose program aimed at inoculating front-line health workers.

Pavel Zelensky, a member of the Anti-Corruption Foundation team of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, was jailed by a Moscow court on Saturday until Feb. 28 on charges of inciting extremism on the internet, according to a court statement.

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says he will fly back to Russia on January 17 from Germany, where he has been convalescing after being poisoned.

Russia has extended a ban on flights to and from Britain until the end of Feb. 1 due to the new coronavirus variant detected in the UK, Russia’s coronavirus taskforce said on Tuesday. Russia, which has already reported a case of the more infectious coronavirus variant, has had the flight ban in place since Dec. 22.

American democracy is “limping on both feet” after the storming of the US Capitol by Donald Trump supporters, a senior Russian lawmaker said Thursday.

President Trump had previously suggested China might have been behind the hack, although other members of his administration had pointed the finger at Moscow.

Pope Francis on Sunday accepted the resignation of the head of the Catholic Church in Belarus, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, who was banned from Belarus last year after angering President Alexander Lukashenko.

Members of the OPEC group of oil producers and their partners will meet via videoconference on Monday to decide on production levels for February, hoping to turn the corner on a difficult year.

The United States on Thursday voiced alarm after Russia expanded rules against NGOs and media considered “foreign agents,” accusing Moscow of stifling free expression.

Russia said on Wednesday it had summoned Britain’s ambassador to tell her it was expanding the number of British citizens banned from entry in response to London sanctioning Russian officials over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Russia said on Wednesday it had expanded its list of British citizens barred from entering the country in response to what it described as unacceptable and ungrounded sanctions imposed in October over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.