Alexei Navalny calls for supporters to 'take to streets' after being jailed for 30 days in rushed trial

Alexei Navalny on Monday called on his supporters to ‘take to the streets’ after he was jailed for at least 30 days in an extraordinary trial that took place in a police station rather than a court.

The Russian opposition leader, who was arrested at Moscow airport on Sunday evening, was imprisoned until February 15 after authorities frantically diverted planes and closed streets to ensure his immediate detention.

Already brought forward by several weeks, the trial began one minute after Mr Navalny's legal team had received official notice.

Kira Yarmysh, Mr Navalny's spokeswoman, confirmed that he will serve his sentence in the notorious Moscow jail where tax lawyer Sergei Magintsky died a decade ago after being denied medical help.

Supporters fear that the 44-year-old, who only recently recovered from poisoning with Novichok nerve agent, could spend far longer in Matrosskaya Tishina prison. It was announced on Monday that a separate court is weighing up whether to enforce his three-and-half-year suspended sentence on fraud offences.

Foreign leaders condemned the arrest while several hundred of Mr Navalny’s supporters protested outside the police station in minus-20 degree temperatures, chanting “freedom” and “Putin step down!”.

Three of Russia’s Baltic neighbours - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - called on the EU to toughen sanctions against Russia imposed in the wake of Mr Navalny’s poisoning if he is not released soon.

The Kremlin, experts said, was likely to calibrate whether or not to impose further prison time on Mr Navalny according to the ferocity of the local and international backlash.

Long the chief foe of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Mr Navalny called on his supporters to rally against “that pack of thieves who have been robbing Russia for the past 20 years” in a video message recorded during a recess in the rushed-through trial.

“Don’t be afraid. Take to the street! Take to the streets not for my sake, but for your own sake and your future!” he said.

Mr Navalny’s allies announced plans shortly afterwards for nation-wide protests on Saturday, when temperatures in Russia are expected to rise to zero degrees.

The married politician flew into Russia on Sunday evening for the first time since he was poisoned and airlifted to Germany for treatment in August. On the flight he watched a cartoon with his wife and joked that he expected ‘a warm welcome’ upon landing in Russia.

Mr Navalny has accused President Putin of orchestrating an operation to kill him after several independent European laboratories confirmed that he was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent.

In the video message released on Monday, Mr Navalny described his arrest as the Kremlin’s revenge for the botched assassination.

“They said to me and everyone who refuses to be silenced: ‘We tried to kill you. You didn’t die and insulted us by this, that’s why we’re going to jail you’.”

Western nations have urged Russia to free Mr Navalny.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned the arrest as "appalling", joining growing calls of condemnation from across the Western world.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said that she condemned Mr Navalny’s "arbitrary arrest" while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that the United States "strongly condemns" the move.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, called for Mr Navalny’s immediate release and hinted at possible sanctions against the Kremlin.

EU sanctions require the unanimous support of all 27 member states, which has proved difficult to secure in the past.

It is possible that the case could be one of the first to use the EU’s version of the Magnitsky Act, which allows the bloc to impose sanctions for human rights abuses.

In Moscow, opposition councilman Ilya Yashin raised concern about the politician’s safety behind bars after he nearly died from the Novichok attack.

“We’ve known for 10 years that Navalny may be jailed. But we all understand now that it’s not the worst thing that can happen to him in Russia,” he told the Dozhd TV station, referring to the poisoning.

“There’s a threat to his life in Russia. There are no guarantees that it won’t happen to him again.”

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man who spent ten years in prison on charges largely believed to be politically motivated, said on Monday that by arresting Mr Navalny President Putin tried to assert his strength as a political leader.

Sending the opposition politician to jail would mark a transition to a much together regime, he warned.

"The arrest of Navalny means that the Putin regime, the bandit regime, is moving to totalitarian methods of pressure on society," Mr Khodorkovsky told Reuters in London.