Dear Mr. President,

I am writing to you concerning politician and anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny who was arrested on 17 January 2021 after arriving from Germany at Sheremetyevo airport and remanded in custody for 30 days.

His arrest and detention are arbitrary and politically motivated. The grounds provided for his arrest was his alleged violation of his probation terms resulting from a past conviction that the European Court of Human Rights found in 2019 to be the result of politically motivated prosecution. The conviction required him to report regularly to a probation officer, which he could not do while he was receiving life-saving treatment abroad. Now the Russian authorities claim that his stay in Germany for treatment and recovery was a violation of probation terms.

Aleksei Navalny is a prominent and vocal government critic. Like many others in Russia, he has been arbitrarily targeted and now deprived of his liberty for his peaceful political activism and for exercising his right to freedom of expression. He is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately and unconditionally.

As the president of the Russian Federation, I urge you to use your authority to ensure Aleksei Navalny’s immediate and unconditional release, and an end to the intimidation and persecution of Aleksei Navalny and all other critics of the Russian authorities.

Yours sincerely,