Russia blasts ECHR ruling on Navalny case

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia on Thursday called a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on opposition figure Alexei Navalny “illegal” and an intrusion in its internal affairs.

"The decision is illegal. It is a very serious attempt to interfere in internal court cases, which, from our point of view, is unacceptable," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

Russia is not looking for confrontation, but the haste and obvious bias in making such a decision raises a lot of questions, he added.

Europe’s top human rights court urged Russia on Wednesday to immediately release Navalny, saying the government could not provide “sufficient safeguards for his life and health."

The ECHR, based in Strasbourg, France, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. It has 47 member states, including Russia.