Alexei Navalny, the best known and most combative opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested at the Moscow airport where he landed on Sunday evening on his way from Germany, where he had been treated in recent months from an ordered poisoning according to him – and according to many reconstructions – by the Russian security services themselves. After he was taken over by the agents at the airport passport control, the Russian judicial authorities announced that his arrest took place pending a hearing that will have to assess the accusation that Navalny violated the obligations of a previous sentence detention.
Navalny’s spokeswoman said that Navalny’s lawyer was prevented from following him on the grounds that she had already passed passport control and that she could not see his lawyers even in the police barracks where he was then taken Navalny.
Navalny had left Berlin and had published a short video on Instagram where his wife says “Boy, get us some vodka: let’s go home” (one quote from the Russian film The big brother). The Russian government had announced in recent days that he would be arrested upon his arrival and hours before his arrival hundreds of people had gathered at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to welcome him. After hours of tensions and clashes between the police and Navalny’s supporters, however, at the last moment the airliner he was traveling on was diverted to another airport, where Navalny was then arrested.
It is currently unclear what will happen to Navalny, whether he will be jailed only briefly as he often has in recent years or whether he will be held longer. His arrest is linked to the violation of the terms of a conviction received a few years ago, according to which Navalny has to report twice a month to the prison police (a sort of signature requirement): while he was convalescing in Germany, of course, he violated the conditions of the sentence.
Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s next National Security Advisor, he called for Navalny’s “immediate release”, a similar request to that made by the German Foreign Minister, the French Foreign Minister and the President of the European Council Charles Michel.
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