Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the West not to confuse Russian politeness with weakness. He stated this after negotiations with his colleague from Jordan Ayman al-Safadi, he is quoted by RIA Novosti.
The diplomat also stressed that the coverage of demonstrations in Russia and in the West indicates “obvious double standards.” Lavrov noted that in the first case, the media show the actions of the police, and not the demonstrators. However, he believes that the actions of the protesters are aggressive.
Earlier, the Foreign Minister also said that Western countries have much more severe laws and punishments for participating in illegal actions than in Russia.
The day before, on February 2, the Simonovsky Court of Moscow replaced Alexey Navalny (the founder of FBK – the fund is included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent) for a suspended sentence for a real one. Thus, Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years in a general regime colony, but will spend two years and eight months in prison, taking into account the year spent under house arrest during the preliminary investigation of the Yves Rocher case.
After the verdict was announced, calls for an uncoordinated action appeared in social networks. Security measures have been stepped up in the center of Moscow; at the request of the police, the Okhotny Ryad, Ploshchad Revolyutsii, Teatralnaya and Aleksandrovsky Sad metro stations were closed until further notice. Detentions took place at Manezhnaya Square.