The Russian prison service has ordered opposition leader Alexei Navalny to return to Moscow on Tuesday morning or face jail time if he returns after the deadline, Reuters reported.
The state of affairs: Navalny, one of Russia’s most prominent critics of President Vladimir Putin, has been in Germany since he was transported there by helicopter when he recovered from an attempted poisoning.
- An investigation by the website Bellingcat this month found that Navalny had been taken out of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) by a chemical weapons team before being poisoned.
- Last week, it was revealed that Navalny had misled one of the FSB agents accused of explaining to him in a telephone conversation how the completed operation was carried out. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the poisoning, claiming it has not yet seen evidence that Navalny was poisoned.
Details: The Federal Prison Service (FSIN) on Monday accused Navalny of violating the terms of a suspended prison sentence he has been serving since 2014 due to a theft case that he said was politically motivated.
- Navalny’s lawyer said he could not return to Moscow by Tuesday and accused the FSIN of acting on orders from the Kremlin, according to Reuters.
- Navalny has been arrested several times for his protests against the government. His probationary period expires on December 30th.
Go deeper: The Russian security official was deceptive in disclosing the poisoning site to Navalny