The Berlin patient

Navalny news:

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called on his supporters to protest after he was arrested at a Moscow airport Sunday.

“Don’t be afraid. Take to the streets. Don’t do it for me, do it for yourselves and your future,” Navalny said in a video posted to YouTube, the social media platform that has brought his anti-Kremlin message to the farthest corners of Russia. Navalny’s supporters say they will organize nationwide protests on Jan. 23.

A judge ruled to remand Navalny in custody for 30 days following his return from Germany, where he was recovering from an August poisoning that he blames on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian authorities had warned that Navalny would be arrested for violating the parole terms of a 2014 conviction in an embezzlement case, even though the European Court of Human Rights later ruled Russia had denied Navalny a fair trial.

Navalny appeared Monday afternoon in a makeshift courtroom inside the police station where he was being held. In a video posted by an aide, Navalny said he hadn’t been allowed to see his lawyers until moments before the legal proceedings began.

Generous of Putin to let him see them at all.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has repeatedly said he would not answer any more questions about Navalny, whom he has recently referred to only as “the Berlin patient.” Peskov abruptly canceled his daily call with reporters Monday, saying he didn’t want to distract reporters from a press conference held by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Moscow’s own Kayleigh McEnany.

The Kremlin has consistently denied poisoning Navalny. At a press conference last month, Putin suggested Navalny worked for U.S. intelligence and was too insignificant for anyone to want to kill.

Even though international experts have determined Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a chemical weapon developed by the Soviet Union, the Kremlin’s version of events appears to be prevailing among Russians.

If you keep saying it, they will believe.

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