Putin critic Navalny defiant as Russian court rejects his appeal, allies detained

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said the governing power wants to "shut him up" by detention and to mute the voices of his allies as a court ordered him to be kept in jail, rejecting an appeal against his detention and shrugging off calls by the West and tens of thousands of his Russian supporters for his release.

Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was remanded in custody for 30 days on Jan. 18 after flying back to Russia from Germany for the first time since being poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent in August.

A court at the time ordered him detained for alleged parole violations, which he denied.

Navalny appeared in court on Thursday by video link from jail, railing against what he called absurd allegations trumped up by authorities to sideline him for political reasons.

"You won't succeed in frightening us. We are the majority... I'm happy that more and more people understand that the law is on our side, that we're in the right," he told the presiding judge.

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