Moscow: (HRNW) Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is due back in court on Friday for a slander trial despite Western calls for his release and on the same day as the European Union’s top diplomat is in Moscow for talks with Russia’s foreign minister.
Navalny, President Vladmir Putin’s most prominent critic, was jailed this week for almost three years for parole violations he called trumped up, a case that the West has condemned and which has spurred talk of sanctions.
Russia has accused the West of hysteria and double standards and said the protests over his jailing, in which thousands were detained, were broken up by police because they were illegal.
Navalny is due in court at 0700 GMT on Friday on charges he slandered a World War Two veteran who took part in a promotional video backing last year’s reforms that let Putin run for two more terms in the Kremlin after 2024 if he wants.
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