Today marks the first anniversary of the arrest of Russian opposition member and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny.

After recovering from a poison attack carried out on him in 2020 in Russia using a military warfare agent, Alexei Navalny returned to his home country on 17 January 2021 and was arrested on arrival at the airport.

Today, we reiterate our call on the Russian authorities to release Alexei Navalny immediately. His conviction was arbitrary and clearly disproportionate. The European Court of Human Rights stated this back in 2017 and ordered Navalny’s immediate release in an interim measure granted on 17 February 2021. His continued detention is thus a violation of Russia’s obligations as a member of the Council of Europe.

It is simply incomprehensible that Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation has been classified as extremist und that former employees are being prosecuted while no meaningful investigations into the poison attack on Alexei Navalny have been undertaken so far.