Russian President Vladimir Putin’s critic Alexei Navalny is being denied access to legal representation, his lawyer said on Monday, as per AFP reports.
On Sunday, Navalny was detained from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, less than an hour after he arrived in the country from Germany. He had reportedly been recovering from a poisoning attack there.
According to AFP, his lawyer Olga Mikhailova told the Echo of Moscow radio station that she was not being allowed to see her client. “I am not being allowed into the building of the police department in the district of Khimki,” she said, as per AFP reports.
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Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh also wrote on Twitter that two of Navalny’s lawyers had been allowed to enter the police building, but were not permitted to meet him.
An outspoken critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Navalny established the Anti-Corruption Foundation in Moscow, back in 2011.
“Navalny is a Russian citizen. He was illegally detained,” the group said.
“It looks like Western politicians see this as an opportunity to divert attention from the deepest crisis the liberal development model has found itself in,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday, after countries across the globe condemned the politician’s arrest.