A key opponent is now set to remain in jail until February 15 after being arrested by an airport.
A Russian court has ordered Alexey Navalny to be held back in pre-trial detention for 30 days, a move that will raise tensions between Moscow and Western leaders calling for the Kremlin’s criticism to be released.
Monday’s verdict was delivered in a courtroom set up at the Khimki police station, on the outskirts of Moscow.
Navalny was arrested on Sunday night, when he returned to Russia for the first time since he was allegedly poisoned last year.
After Monday’s hearing, Navalny called on people to protest against the Russian government and authorities.
In a video posted on YouTube, Navalny said: “Don’t be scared, take to the streets. Don’t go out for me, go out for yourself and in the future. “
He was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport ordered by the Russian prison service, which is said to have breached the terms of a prison sentence suspended in 2014.
Navalny says the obscenity charges associated with the 2014 case are politically motivated.
He will now remain in jail until at least February 15, with a different court to decide whether to turn his three-and-a-half-year sentence to real prison term.
Al Jazeera’s Aleksandra Godfroid, reporting from Moscow, said Navalny would be transferred to a “pre-trial detention center” after Monday’s ruling and said his detention could still be extended beyond 30 days.
“He will remain in prison awaiting his hearing,” she said. “We can expect this hearing to take place before the end of this month, although that is uncertain.”
‘Mocking justice’
Navalny supporters said the 44-year-old was denied access to his lawyers and was contacted at the last minute of a hearing Monday.
In a video recorded from inside the police station, Navalny himself said he was “looking at a mockery of justice” and went out to Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of he threw the criminal code out the window with fear.
The Kremlin was expected to comment on his case later Monday, but usually raises questions about Navalny to law enforcement agencies.
Navalny’s arrest on his return from Berlin, where he was treated after the alleged poisoning in August that he blames the Kremlin, has been condemned by European and world powers.
Foreign ministers of Germany, Britain, France and Italy called for the release of Navalny, while Lithuania said it would call on the European Union to impose new sanctions on Russia as soon as possible.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed angry statements, saying they were designed to distract their own citizens from domestic problems.
He said Navalny’s case had received a false impression in the West and that Moscow had not been marred by possible damage to its image.
“Maybe we should think about our image, but we as young women are not going to ball,” Lavrov told reporters.