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Russian anti-Putin opposition leader Alexei Navalny returned to Moscow on Sunday, despite Russian authorities announcing that he would be arrested and possibly sentenced to several years in prison, according to Reuters, cited by Agerpres. The plane was redirected and landed at another Moscow airport, Sheremetyevo, although it was scheduled to land at Vnukovo. Supporters of the Russian dissident had gathered there and the police made arrests.
UPDATE 19:50. Aleksei Navalny makes statements at the airport. He apologizes that the people who were blocked by the measures taken by the authorities have suffered. “It is further proof that the fight must go on,” said the opponent. “I am happy to be here, it is the best day in recent months. This is my house, “Navalny said.
“I am not afraid, because I know that I am right, I know that my criminal cases are fabricated and what happened to me are attempts to scare and intimidate me. I will go through passport control, leave the airport and go home, ”he said.
UPDATE 19:40. The passengers got off the plane, including Aleksei Navalnii, and got on the bus that took them from the runway to the airport terminal.
According to Media Zona, the police made filters on the roads to Sheremetievo, they stop the cars and ask what is the purpose of traveling to the airport.
UPDATE 19:30 The plane arrived in Moscow. Passengers will only exit from the rear. Until now no one came down.
Alexei Navalny’s plane was redirected
UPDATE 19:20 A correspondent for the news site Current Time, aboard the plane carrying Aleksei Navalny, said that during the flight, the pilot announced that he could not land at Vnukovo airport for technical reasons: another plane was malfunctioning and stranded on the Vnukovo runway that was assigned for his plane. All the passengers began to laugh, as did the commander of the aircraft.
The same source says that during the flight, the flight attendants arrived at Navalny and asked him to take a selfie.
Current Time broadcasts live on board the plane.
UPDATE 19:00 The plane will land at a different airport than originally planned. The aircraft was redirected to Sheremetyevo, and the indicated landing time would be 20:48 (19:48 Romanian time), according to the display at Vnukovo airport, where the landing was originally scheduled.
Meanwhile, in Vnukovo, the police continue to detain those who came to demonstrate. The atmosphere is tense, people sing and there is an infernal noise of car horns.
UPDATE 18:50 Vnukovo airport was closed for landing. The plane Navalnîi is on will be redirected to another airport, but which one is not yet known, two media sites have announced.
law Novaia Gazette, It would be the Cikalov military airport, where the order was received to prepare for the landing of a flight outside of regular hours.
Supporters gathered at Vnukovo airport. The police are making arrests
UPDATE 18:40. Aleksei Navalny’s plane is 30 minutes late, he announced at the Moscow airport. Initially, it was supposed to arrive at 19:20 Moscow time (18:20 Romanian time), and now the new indicated time is 19:51.
Meanwhile, several supporters gathered in front of the airport, despite the fact that it is minus 20 degrees in Moscow. They shout “Freedom for political prisoners”, “Fascists” and “Putin in the trash!”
UPDATE 18:00 According to France-Presse, several of Navalny’s collaborators, who had gone to the airport to meet him, were detained. Previously, several police cars had been seen arriving at the Moscow airport. Meanwhile, the plane carrying Navalny took off from Berlin around 14:30 GMT (16:30, Romanian time).
According to the BBC, Liubov Sobol, a close associate of Navalny, is among those arrested.
Metal barriers were placed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. The dissident’s spokeswoman, Kira Iarmiș, posted on Twitter photos with the police arriving at the airport.
Initial novelty:
Navalny will arrive in Russia on a Pobeda plane and depart from the new Berlin airport. He would arrive in the country around 7:20 p.m. local time. Navalny asked his followers to greet him at the airport. The Moscow prosecutor’s office has warned that unauthorized demonstrations will take place at the airport and has threatened to take action to the contrary.
After an attempt to assassinate nerve agent novicek, Navalny recovered in Germany in August. Navalny, a harsh critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced his decision to return from Germany to Russia on Wednesday, saying he misses Moscow and is not interested in what he called the lawsuits against him. He also said that he never intended to stay outside of Russia, because he never voluntarily left his home country and that he arrived in Germany “in a resuscitation box.”
On Thursday, Moscow’s prison service announced that it would do its best to arrest him as soon as he arrived in Russia, accusing him of breaching the conditions of a probation following a suspended prison term for embezzlement, in a 2014 case about which Navalny says that was done.
Aleksei Navalny was transferred to the Charite Hospital in Berlin, Germany, in August 2020 after suffering an illness on a plane from Siberia to Moscow. He was discharged from the hospital on September 23 after, according to the hospital, his condition “improved enough.”
Germany, backed by its allies, said the Russian president’s opponent was poisoned by a nerve agent from the Noviciok family.
Navalny came to poison the FSB, Russia’s secret service, under Putin’s orders. The Russian leader denied the accusations. Russian officials initially refused to accept that Navalny was poisoned.
Publisher: Adrian Dumitru | Luana Pavaluca
