Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained after returning defiantly to Moscow on Sunday, his spokesman said months after being left in a coma when he was poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent.
Faced with the threat of his arrest during contact, the leading Kremlin critic boarded a plane in Berlin, Germany, where he was evacuated from the hospital in Siberia for treatment in August at the insistence of his family.
The plane, which was originally on its way to Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, was diverted to the capital’s Sheremetyevo airport shortly before landing, Navalny’s press officer Kira Yarmysh confirmed in a tweet, without explaining why the plane was redirected.
Yarmysh posted a video of Navalny being escorted by officials in Sheremetyevo, saying he was being held without explanation and was not allowed to bring his lawyer. His current location and status are unknown, Yarmysh tweeted Sunday.
The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service has issued a statement to the state media agency TASS confirming that Navalny is being held, allegedly for ‘repeated violations of the probationary period’. He will remain in custody until he can appear in court, the statement said.
While Navalny (44) was in the air, Russian Dozhd TV broadcaster showed images of Navalny’s associates, including lawyer and politician Lyubov Sobol, being held while waiting for the politician to arrive at Vnukovo airport. come.
Inside and outside the airport, hundreds issued a warning from the Moscow prosecutor’s office to welcome Navalny when he touched. Dozhd TV showed images of some supporters being detained and riot police moving in.
Security measures were also increased at the airport and several trucks for prisoners were seen outside.
Hours earlier, wearing a bright green jacket and a small suitcase, Navalny boarded his Moscow flight and waved to the crowd of reporters and other passengers before being applauded by some as he boarded the plane.
“I am very, very happy today,” he said, adding that he feels like a Russian citizen who has every right to return home. ‘
Asked if he was worried about returning to Russia, Navalny said: “Why would I be afraid of Russia? What bad things can happen to me in Russia?”
Navalny on Wednesday announced his decision to return to Moscow, indicating his intention to continue his political fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In an online video message, he said it never occurred to him not to return to Russia.
“It’s because I’m not gone. “I ended up in Germany for one simple reason – in an intensive care unit: they tried to kill me,” he said.
A thorn in the side of the Kremlin for more than a decade, which has exposed high-level corruption and mobilized the crowd of young protesters. He fell ill on August 20 on a flight to Moscow from Tomsk, a city in Siberia.
The plane was forced to land in the city of Omsk, which is also in Siberia. There he was taken to the hospital for treatment and placed in a medically induced coma.
Supporters of the anti-corruption campaign, which was barred from challenging Putin for the Russian presidency in 2018, immediately said they believed he had been poisoned.
But Russian doctors said the initial investigation did not indicate that this was the case, but rather that he had a metabolic problem.
After a medical team flew in from Germany, the politician’s family insisted that he be transferred to Berlin for treatment.
Germany later concluded that the politician was poisoned by Novichok, the Soviet-era nerve agent, and Navalny’s associates accused President Putin of being behind it.
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However, the Kremlin has denied any involvement, insisting that there is no evidence that Navalny was poisoned and refused to launch a criminal investigation into the incident. Moscow also insisted that Navalny could be free to return home like any Russian citizen.
His supporters fear that the politician could be jailed because his poisoning has increased his status as the strongest enemy of the Russian government within the country and internationally.
In late December, the Federal Penitentiary Service warned Navalny that he should sit in jail if he did not report to his office immediately, in accordance with the terms of a suspended sentence and trial he received for a conviction in 2014, which rejects the politician as politically motivated. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that his conviction was illegal.
It said Thursday that Navalny was on a wanted list, with the order to arrest him.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
