Russia

ECHR Demand to Release Navalny Part of Pressure Campaign on Russia, Foreign Ministry Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The demand of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to release Alexey Navalny is an element in the campaign of pressure on Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Sputnik

On Tuesday, the Strasbourg-based court decided to call on the Russian government to release Navalny, for whom in early February the Moscow court replaced the suspended sentence with a real one in the fraud case.

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"We regard this decision as another element in the campaign of pressure on our country. Including as an element of interference in the internal affairs of our country ... These are all links in one chain," Zakharova said.

Zakharova called the demand of the ECHR to release Navalny "a salvo at the international law."

"This is such a salvo at the international law, the consequences of which, it seems to me, the ECHR simply cannot measure. They destroy the international legal framework, which they did not create. Modern international relations are built on their basis and foundation," Zakharova said.

The ECHR's demand demonstrates that the West, in the heat of realising its interests, does not think about the consequences, she added.

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