Alexey Navalny faces prison sentence in Russia as thousands of his supporters are detained at protests
Moscow — Russian prosecutors have backed a call for opposition leader Alexei Navalny to face a longer prison sentence when he appears in court on Tuesday. The hearing will come two days after riot police broke up mass demonstrations across Russia in support of the high-profile domestic challenger to what the U.S. government calls President Vladimir Putin's "autocracy."
Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption investigator who has steadily become an increasingly large thorn in Putin's side, was arrested on January 17 upon his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from poisoning with the deadly Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. He says the attack took place in Russia, on Putin's orders — an allegation the Kremlin has denied.
Tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets Sunday for the second weekend in a row to demand Navalny's release and condemn Putin's rule. An independent monitoring group said more than 5,400 people were detained by the police, including several journalists. Videos posted online appeared to show police beating several protesters.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that a large number of people who took part in the weekend protests were "hooligans and provocateurs." He told reporters on a conference call that engaging such people in dialogue would be impossible.
Navalny has been in pretrial detention for a month on charges of violating the terms of a previous 3.5-year suspended sentence, stemming from an earlier conviction that he has always dismissed as politically motivated.
In a statement issued Monday, the Prosecutor General's Office supported the prison service's earlier request to replace Navalny's suspended sentence with a term in prison, calling it "legal and reasonable." It is that request that a Moscow court will consider on Tuesday.
Navalny's allies called for people to gather outside the court building to show their support for the opposition leader and demand his release.
Many of his backers fear Navalny could eventually be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, given a separate criminal probe launched against him by prosecutors in December alleging large-scale fraud. Navalny has dismissed the claims that he used donations to his organizations for personal purposes. The charges against him in that investigation carry a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
U.S. and Russia trade warnings
Navalny's arrest and the mass-arrests of his supporters on the streets have drawn intense criticism from the United States and EU leaders. Russia's Foreign Ministry lashed out at the condemnation, accusing Washington of trying to destabilize Russia by backing the protests.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denied that allegation in an interview with NBC News on Monday and put the blame squarely on Putin, who has been at the helm of power in Russia for more than 20 years.
"The Russian government makes a big mistake if it believes that this is about us," said Blinken. "It's about the government. It's about the frustration that the Russian people have with corruption, with autocracy, and I think they need to look inward, not outward."
Blinken said the Biden administration was still considering its response to the situation in Russia.
Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said on Monday that Moscow would simply ignore Blinken's comments, and he warned against Washington imposing any new sanctions.
While there have been demonstrations in the past, Samuel Greene, Director of the Russia Institute at the King's College in London, said this time he sees a "difference in tone and emotion" on Russia's streets.
He told CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata in an interview on Monday that while previous demonstrations have been about how Putin was running the country, "this protest is very much about getting Putin out."
Andrei Kolesnikov, a political analyst with Carnegie Moscow, said that while Putin's popularity ratings are still relatively high, "the moral strength is on the side of the protesters."
In an op-ed published on Monday, he said a largely indifferent populace had for years formed the backbone of Putin's regime and, "in a sense, the battle now is for the apathetic majority."