Maria Zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the threat of possible sanctions from Western countries over the case of Alexei Navalny (she is the founder of the Anti-Corruption Fund, included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent). She expressed her opinion on the air of the YouTube channel “Soloviev Live”.
She noted that Western countries are constantly making decisions on new sanctions against Russia. According to her, the reason is by itself, if it is not, then “they will come up with it.”
Zakharova also drew attention to the statements of Western diplomats about their desire to “observe important events in the host country”, which they explained attending the trial over Navalny. The diplomat recalled that they were repeatedly invited to the country for another reason.
“Since 2014, we have been inviting Western diplomats, ambassadors, advisers, consular officers – any representatives of the embassies located in Moscow and other cities of Russia, to come to Crimea and see how things are going there. Why, if you think that it is a normal practice for diplomats of foreign countries to study the host country, and I cannot disagree with this, why do you go to a court session where there is no case of your citizen, while you have not been able to to get to the Crimea and see how things are going there? ” – she stressed.
On Tuesday, February 2, the Simonovsky Court of Moscow replaced Alexei Navalny's suspended sentence with a real one. He was sentenced to 3.5 years in a general regime colony. However, Navalny will spend 2 years and 8 months in the colony, taking into account the year spent under house arrest during the preliminary investigation in the Yves Rocher case.
About 20 employees of the embassies of foreign states, including the USA, Bulgaria, Poland, Latvia, Austria, Switzerland, arrived at the court session.
Navalny was detained on January 17 at the Moscow Sheremetyevo airport upon his return from Germany. According to him, he was treated in Berlin for poisoning. Navalny fell into a coma on August 20, he became ill during the flight from Tomsk to Moscow. On August 22, he was taken to a German clinic, whose doctors announced that the Russian was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group. Russian doctors found no traces of the poison.
