MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2021) A Moscow court has fined Lyubov Sobol, a close ally of Alexey Navalny, 20,000 rubles ($266) for repeatedly calling on supporters of the Russian opposition figure to stage unauthorized protests, Sobol's lawyer told Sputnik.
On Friday, a court representative told Sputnik that Sobol had been fined 250,000 rubles ($3,322) over her repeated calls for Navalny supporters to organize unauthorized demonstrations. Sobol was detained by law enforcement officers on Thursday on suspicion of urging Navalny supporters to stage unauthorized protests over the weekend.
On Saturday, Sobol was detained on Pushkinskaya Square in central Moscow, during unauthorized demonstrations.
"The court has issued Lyubov Sobol an administrative fine in the amount of 20 thousand rubles," Sobol's lawyer Vladimir Voronin told Sputnik.
On Saturday, many Russian cities were hit by protests in support of opposition figure Alexey Navalny, who was detained in Moscow this past Sunday upon his arrival at Sheremetyevo International Airport. Prior to Navalny's return to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for his alleged poisoning, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service warned it would arrest him for probation violations as he was previously found guilty of committing two administrative offenses.
On Monday, a court in Russia ruled to keep Navalny in detention for 30 days. On January 29, a Moscow court is expected to decide whether Navalny's suspended sentence should be replaced with prison time for breach of suspension conditions.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned against foreign meddling amid pro-Navalny rallies, condemning the US embassy for publishing maps of the protests and saying that US diplomats would be summoned over the incident.
Commenting on the West's repeated calls for Navalny's release, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it is an attempt to shift attention from the crisis of the liberal model of development. According to the diplomat, his Western counterparts are visibly "happy" to churn out nearly identical statements.
