January 19, 2021 08:16
Western leaders have demanded the release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was arrested Sunday on arrival in Moscow after receiving medical treatment in Germany. The 44-year-old Putin critic and leader of the Russia of the Future party was poisoned by a nerve agent in Siberia last August. The Kremlin denies involvement in that attack.
"The Russian authorities have arrested the victim of an attempted assassination with a chemical weapon, not the perpetrator," German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert told reporters Monday. "The German government strongly calls on the Russian government to first of all release Mr. Navalny immediately and secondly to fully investigate the circumstances of the chemical weapons attack on Russian soil," he added.