MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2021) A Moscow court has issued an order for an administrative arrest for the head of Alexey Navalny's campaign in Moscow, for violating rules for holding mass demonstrations, a court source told Sputnik.
"The judge gave [Nikolai] Lyaskin seven days of administrative arrest," the source said.
In September 2019, Lyaskin was fined 20,000 rubles ($265) for violating the procedures for holding mass demonstrations. This time, he was found guilty of repeatedly violating the rules.
Over the weekend, a Moscow court 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 Saturday, many Russian cities were hit by protests in support of Alexey Navalny, who was detained in Moscow earlier this month 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.
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.
On Monday, no proposals regarding potential sanctions against Russia were put forward at the meeting of EU foreign ministers, according to EU high representative for foreign policy Josep Borrell.
