On Sunday, Russian political opposition vlogger Alexey Navalny landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, where he was quickly detained.
Commenting on the detention, US President-elect Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted that "Mr. Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable."
"The Kremlin’s attacks on Mr. Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people who want their voices heard," Sullivan added.
Mr. Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable. The Kremlin’s attacks on Mr. Navalny are not just a violation of human rights, but an affront to the Russian people who want their voices heard.
— Jake Sullivan (@jakejsullivan) January 17, 2021
Responding to Sullivan’s allegations, Zakharova posted to her Facebook account that she felt the urge to tell "Mr. Sullivan (as well as many other foreign figures who publish pre-prepared comments): respect international law, do not encroach on the national legislation of sovereign states and deal with the problems in your own country."
Navalny fell ill aboard a domestic Russian flight on August 20. He was initially treated in the Siberian city of Omsk, after the plane made an emergency landing. Local doctors suggested metabolic malfunction as the main diagnosis, and stated that there were no traces of poison in his system.
Two days later, Navalny was flown to the Charite hospital in Berlin for further treatment. Later, the German government claimed to have evidence of his poisoning by a nerve agent from the Novichok group. Laboratories in France and Sweden reportedly backed the conclusion.
In September 2020, Navalny was discharged from the hospital. Moscow has been called on Berlin to present the biological materials to corroborate the chemical poisoning, so that it could open a criminal case.
