Swedish FM calls for Navalny's release

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday claimed Alexei Navalny's poisoning was staged as Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde urged Russian authorities to release the jailed opposition leader.

Speaking at a joint news conference following talks in Moscow, Linde voiced the common EU position on Navalny's arrest upon his arrival from Germany where he recovered from a nerve agent poisoning.

Navalny fell into a coma on August 20 while on a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow.

He was transferred to a Berlin hospital two days later.

Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Lavrov said Moscow was not provided with any information that would show Russia's involvement.

"We have all the foundations to believe that it's been staged," Lavrov said

The jailing of Navalny and the crackdown on protests have sparked international outrage, with Western officials calling for his release and condemning the arrests of demonstrators.

Linde also urged Russia to reconsider its plans to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty after the former US administration pulled out of the agreement.

Lavrov said Russia's decision depended on whether new US President Joe Biden's administration will to move to rejoin.

"If the US fully rejoin the treaty, I can say that Russia will be ready to examine this situation in a constructive way," he said.

The Open Skies Treaty came into force in 2002.

It was meant to promote trust between the US and Russia by allowing its 34 signatories to conduct reconnaissance flights over each other's territories to collect information about military forces and activities.

Image credit: AP