Moscow:
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is due back in court on Friday for a slander trial in spite of Western calls for his release and on the very same day as the European Union’s prime diplomat is in Moscow for talks with Russia’s foreign minister.
Navalny, President Vladmir Putin’s most prominent critic, was jailed this week for virtually 3 years for parole violations he referred to as trumped up, a case that the West has condemned and which has spurred speak of sanctions.
Russia has accused the West of hysteria and double requirements and mentioned the protests more than his jailing, in which thousands have been detained, have been broken up by police since they have been illegal.
Navalny is due in court at 0700 GMT on Friday on charges he slandered a World War Two veteran who took component in a promotional video backing final year’s reforms that let Putin run for two more terms in the Kremlin following 2024 if he desires.
Navalny described the folks in the video as traitors without the need of a conscience and as corrupt lackeys.
Though the charge is at the moment punishable by up to two years in jail, he can not face a custodial sentence since the alleged crime was committed ahead of the law was changed to make it a jailable offence, according to Navalny’s lawyer.
Navalny mentioned final summer season that the case was component of an unrelenting campaign to stifle his political campaign against the Kremlin.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s prime diplomat, is set to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday.
Despite close trade ties and power interdependence, Russia’s political relations with the European Union have been at post Cold War lows given that Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
On the eve of the talks, the Kremlin mentioned it wanted dialogue among Moscow and Brussels to be restored to talk about what it mentioned have been quite a few disagreements.
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