Russia's arrests of opposition leader Alexei Navalny 'politically motivated', European Court of Human Rights rules

The Kremlin was yesterday ordered to pay Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny €63,000 (£56,000) after the European Court of Human Rights found it had arrested him on political pretexts.

Authorities acted to “suppress political pluralism” in seven arrests of Mr Navalny, Thursday’s court ruling read.

The politician declared the result a “triumph of justice” and a “great victory”.

Today was not, in fact, the first time Strasbourg has found against the Kremlin in concluding the arrests were illegal. But Russia appealed against the initial February decision, and that seems to have emboldened the court.

The latest ruling not only confirmed the first decision, but went further to conclude the arrests infringed article 18 of the European Convention and were politically motivated. This was the first such verdict to be delivered against Russia in over a decade.

A panel of 20 judges determined that Russia should pay the president’s most serious political rival €50,000 in “moral compensation”. The remaining sum was calculated from material and legal costs. The finding covers seven arrests and two pre-trial detentions between 2012 and 2014 – and is binding because Russia is a member of the Council of Europe.

It represents a major victory for a man who was barred from running in this year’s presidential election.

The Kremlin, which has regularly described Mr Navalny as a criminal, has gone to extreme measures to limit his electoral and media exposure. On several occasions his websites have been shut down and staff arrested. Journalists claim that his name has also been banned on influential state TV networks.

Russian authorities have made little secret of their displeasure with the Strasbourg process.

On 13 November, Mr Navalny was unexpectedly barred from leaving Russia while travelling to hear the case. Border officials at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport said he had been placed on a no-fly list after failing to pay a court fine. Mr Navalny says he had never received notification of the fine and was not offered a statutory five-day grace period to pay.

Authorities lifted the travel ban once the fine was paid later the same day.

Mr Navalny made it to Strasbourg on Thursday to hear the verdict. He sat alongside his brother Oleg, himself only recently released from prison after serving a three-and-a-half year term. Many believe the sentence was directed against Alexei. The opposition leader has spent four-and-a-half months of the last year under arrest or in pre-trial detention.