The human rights NGO says that it no longer considers jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a prisoner of conscience due to pass comments he made that it believes qualify as advocacy of hate.

In a statement, center Reuters Amnesty said some of these comments, which Navalny has not publicly denounced, reached the threshold of advocacy of hatred and this is at odds with Amnesty's definition of a prisoner of conscience.

Amnesty did not say what comments it was specifically referring thio.

But in the past, Navalny has been criticized for nationalist statements against illegal immigration on for attending an annual nationalist march several years ago.

In 2007 video, he called for the deportation of migrants to prevent the rise of far right violence, saying We have the right to be Russians in Russia on will defend that right.

However, Amnesty did go on record to say Navalny should be released from jail on that he has committed no crime.

It says he's being persecuted for his campaigning on outspoken criticism of President Vladimir Putin.

He was arrested on his return to Russia last month following a near fatal poisoning last year.

Navalny is set to spend just over 2.5 years in jail for parole violations he called trumped up.

His allies protested the move by Amnesty on Twitter.

They included Eevans Andov, who said quote the procedure for assigning and revoking amnesty International status has proven extremely shameful.