US President Joe Biden brought up the topic of Alexei Navalny in a conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. This was stated by the press secretary of the White House Jen Psaki, broadcasting the briefing was conducted by NBC.
Psaki confirmed that Biden called on the Russian leader to release Navalny from arrest. “Yes, as our entire team has done publicly over the past few weeks,” she said. A White House spokeswoman declined to disclose further details of the conversation between the two leaders.
The telephone conversation between Putin and Biden took place on January 26. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the telephone conversation was initiated by Moscow. The conversation lasted over 35 minutes, it was working and frank.
Alexei Navalny was transported to Berlin on August 22, 2020. Two days earlier, during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, he felt unwell, the plane was urgently landed in Omsk. Then the patient was sent to the German clinic Charite, where local doctors announced the discovery of a substance from the Novichok group in Navalny's body. On January 17, 2021, he returned to Russia and was detained at Sheremetyevo airport. The next day, a court hearing in Khimki near Moscow arrested him for 30 days.
