The leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny, in a Pobeda Airlines plane traveling from Berlin to Moscow.
Moscow:
Russian police detained the Kremlin’s top critic, Alexei Navalny, at a Moscow airport on Sunday, just minutes after he returned home for the first time since his poisoning last summer.
Navalny was detained at passport control at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport less than an hour after he flew in from Berlin in defiance of warnings that he faced imminent arrest.
His arrest prompted immediate condemnation from the European Union and called for EU sanctions against Russia by Lithuania.
“The arrest of Alexey Navalny upon his arrival in Moscow is unacceptable. I call on the Russian authorities to release him immediately,” European Council President Charles Michel wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, EU member Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said his arrest was “totally unacceptable” and that those involved should be subject to sanctions.
Navalny’s plane landed in Sheremetyevo after a dramatic last-minute detour from another Moscow airport, where several of his top allies were detained while awaiting his arrival.
The arrest appeared to show that the authorities would no longer tolerate the activities of the former anti-corruption activist and government critic, who in the past decade has become President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent.
Four uniformed policemen wearing black masks met Navalny at passport control and took him away after a hug and a kiss from his wife Yulia, AFP journalists said at the scene.
“Alexei was detained without explanation,” Navalny’s lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, told AFP at the airport. “Everything that is happening now is against the law.”
But Russia’s FSIN prison service said it had detained Navalny for “multiple violations” of a 2014 suspended sentence for fraud, adding that “he will be detained” until a court ruling is issued.
The FSIN had previously warned Navalny that he would be arrested for failing to comply with the conditions of probation while in Germany, including registering with the service twice a month.
The plane carrying Navalny from Germany, where the 44-year-old was recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he attributes to the Kremlin, landed in Sheremetyevo around 8:15 pm (1715 GMT), AFP journalists said in the flight.
The pilot had told passengers that there was a delay for “technical reasons” and then that the flight had been diverted from Vnukovo, where Navalny’s supporters and the media awaited his return.
Supporters had gathered in Vnukovo despite the airport banning mass events due to coronavirus restrictions. With his plane still in the air, the police detained Navalny’s top aides, including prominent Moscow activist Lyubov Sobol.
Footage shot by local journalists inside the airport showed the police taking her and three other people away while other supporters were seen being detained outside.
OVD Info, which monitors detentions in political protests in Russia, said at least 53 people had been detained at the airport.
There was a heavy security presence in Vnukovo, AFP journalists there said, including dozens of police in riot gear with black helmets and batons.
‘Support their courage’
Some Navalny fans had also responded to a call from his team to introduce themselves, including Tanya Shchukina, an artist who had traveled from St. Petersburg.
“It is important for me as a Russian citizen to support this man, his courage,” she told AFP. “After this assassination attempt … I had to come to support him, to show him that he is not alone, that everything will be fine.”
Navalny fell seriously ill on a flight over Siberia in August and was flown to Berlin in an induced coma.
Western experts concluded that he was poisoned with the Soviet-designed Novichok nerve toxin and Navalny alleges that the attack was carried out on Putin’s orders.
The Kremlin denies any involvement and Russian investigators said there was no reason to launch an investigation into the attack.
The anti-corruption activist may also face criminal charges under an investigation launched late last year by Russian investigators who say he misappropriated more than $ 4 million in donations.
Anti-corruption investigations
Navalny has been the symbol of Russia’s protest movement for a decade, after rising to prominence as an anti-corruption blogger and leading street demonstrations against the government.
Post research on YouTube about the wealth of Russia’s political elites. Some of the videos garner millions of views, making the activist’s team the target of lawsuits, police raids and jail time.
Navalny is either ignored or receives negative coverage on state-controlled television, the main source of news for many Russians, leaving it unclear how much support he enjoys among ordinary citizens.
According to a poll published by the independent Levada Center last year, only 20 percent of those polled said they approved of Navalny’s actions, while 50 percent disapproved.
The Kremlin’s opponent has never held an elected position. He ranked second in a 2013 vote for Moscow mayor, but was barred from opposing Putin in the 2018 presidential election.
Their allies are also frequently prevented from running for office.
In 2019, several Navalny allies were barred from running for Moscow city hall, sparking mass demonstrations in the capital that lasted for several weeks.
His team has been preparing to challenge the ruling United Russia party in the lower house state Duma elections to be held in September.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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