The activist appeared shortly before Josep Borrell, head of EU foreign policy, met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.
His decision to continue the journey to Russia as planned – despite the protests and continued imprisonment of Russia’s most prominent opposition member – without preconditions has infuriated critics of the EU’s relationship with Russia.
“If the EU is serious about a dialogue with Russia and not just with a group of criminals around Putin, Borrell should have made a meeting with Navalny a condition,” said Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russia-based opposition politician who has recently poisoned twice for five years.
Borrell, along with Lavrov, said he had called on Russia to release Navalny, who was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison, and to open an investigation into his poisoning.
“ While we fully respect Russian sovereignty and its own responsibility for the fulfillment of its international obligations, the European Union believes that issues related to the rule of law, human rights, civil society and political freedom are central to a common future for both the European Union and Russia, ‘said Borrell.
He added that relations between the European Union and Russia in recent years have been “characterized by fundamental differences and a lack of confidence”.
Lavrov, in turn, criticized the sanctions against Moscow, saying that relations between the EU and Russia “had been through difficult times because of unilateral and illegal restrictions imposed by the EU under false pretenses”.
He said it was important that Russia and the EU “demonstrate an intention to support channels for dialogue, especially on those issues on which we have divergent views”. And he warned that “the further deterioration of relationships is fraught with negative consequences.”
Claim for defamation
Navalny’s defamation trial should have resumed on January 20, but was postponed after his arrest at the airport on January 17, shortly after returning to Moscow from Germany.
At the start of the hearing, Navalny asked the court for half an hour to hear the case and to consult with his lawyers. The court said he should have heard of the case since August, to which Navalny replied, “I had a lot of other things to do in August.”
Navalny continued to ridicule the legal process, demanding that the veteran in his 90s remove his mask and lie down. The veteran appeared at the hearing via video link from his apartment.
Asked by the prosecution if he understood the charges, Navalny replied, “No, I know nothing about Artemenko, except that his relatives are selling him.”
Navalny is accused of violating Russia’s defamation law in his social media comments last June on the RT video, which also featured prominent Russian cultural and sporting figures. The constitutional changes, which were backed in the July 1 referendum, paved the way for Putin, who has ruled for two decades, to remain president until 2036.
In December, the penalty for defamation was amended to include possible imprisonment. But at the time of the alleged crime, those found guilty could only be fined up to one million rubles (about $ 13,300) or sentenced to community service.
On Friday, Navalny spoke to the Russian courts as “corrupt”, claiming that the case against him had not been brought by investigators, but by “the PR people of Russia Today (RT).”
“Cases are always being made up against me, but the authorities have problems when cases go to court,” he said. “It’s clear to everyone out there that the truth is on my side.”
Navalny was sentenced to prison on Tuesday for failing to report to probation officers after his poisoning last summer, violating the terms of a suspended sentence for embezzlement in a 2014 case. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the case was politically motivated.
CNN’s Mary Ilyushina reported from Moscow and Laurs Smith-Spark wrote from London. Schams Elwazer and James Frater contributed to this report.