Russia on Thursday reiterated that it would not pay heed to interference from other countries in its internal affairs, referring to international reactions which condemned a prison sentence for Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.
"We do not intend to pay any attention to such statements regarding the application of our laws to those who violate them, as well as regarding the rulings of our Russian court," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists, according to news agency Interfax.
"We are ready to explain these issues further, but we are not ready to discuss them with anybody," he added.
A Moscow court ruled on Tuesday that Navalny should serve three-and-a-half years in a penal camp for a probation violation because he failed to check in with authorities while he was in Germany recovering from a poison attack that has been blamed on Russian domestic intelligence.
Navalny has been on probation since 2014 in a fraud case, which he has long condemned as political and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said involved "arbitrary and unfair" proceedings.
The Kremlin spokesperson on Thursday also defended the police crackdown on demonstrators who had been demanding the release of Navalny.
"There are no repressions," Peskov said. "There are measures which the police are taking regarding those who break the law."
The verdict had sparked a wave of mass protests mainly in Moscow and St Petersburg on Tuesday evening, during which many people were injured due to police violence.
The rights portal OVD counted more than 1,400 detentions. Already last Sunday, police arrested about 5,700 protesters during pro-Navalny rallies.
