Italy's top diplomat Luigi Di Maio and his US, UK, Canadian, French, German, Japanese and EU counterparts have issued a statement condemning "the politically motivated arrest and detention" of Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny.
“We, the G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union, are united in condemning the politically motivated arrest and detention of Alexey Navalny," read the statement.
The statement "called upon the Russian authorities for Mr Navalny’s immediate and unconditional release."
Navalny, a pro-democracy campaigner and Kremlin critic, has been held in a Moscow jail since his arrest upon his return to Russia on 17 January after being poisoned with what the West says was a military-grade nerve agent. Navalny, says he is being detained on trumped-up charges and accuses Russia's president Vladmir Putin of ordering his murder, claims which the Kremlin denies.
"We are also deeply concerned by the detention of thousands of peaceful protesters and journalists, and call upon Russia to adhere to its national and international obligations and release those detained arbitrarily for exercising their right of peaceful assembly on 23 January," read the G7 statement.
Navalny's supporters held nationwide protests in Russia at the weekend, leading to over 3,000 arrests amid a crackdown by security forces and amplifying international calls to free Navalny
"The violent suppression by police forces of the right of individuals to express their opinion is unacceptable. These events confirm a continuous negative pattern of shrinking space for the opposition, civil society, human rights defenders and independent voices in Russia."
The statement also deplored Navalny's detention "in relation to court decisions which the European Court of Human Rights determined in 2017 to be arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable".
"G7 foreign ministers recall their condemnation, in the strongest possible terms, of the poisoning of Mr Navalny in August 2020 with a chemical nerve-agent of the 'Novichok' group, a substance developed by Russia," the statement went on.
"We reiterate that any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable and contravenes international norms against the use of such weapons."
The statement urged Russian authorities "to investigate and credibly explain the use of a chemical weapon on its soil in the light of Russia’s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention".
"We remain strongly committed to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and to our support for democracy, the rule of law and human rights in Russia, as well as to bolstering our support to Russian civil society," the statement said.
The G7 ministers said they would "continue to monitor closely" Russia’s response to international calls to immediately free Navalny and any protesters and journalists who have been "detained arbitrarily".
The ministers will also be tracking any criminal investigation by the Kremlin into Navalny’s poisoning, the statement underlined.
