Many of the activists on the ground have bought airline tickets they do not intend to use in order to meet the regime critic Alexei Navalny.
He returns to Russia today for the first time after being poisoned with the neurotoxin novitjok in August last year.
One of the people present to meet Navalny was Konstantin Kotov, a human rights activist who was recently released from prison after being detained for more than a year.
- I have supported Alexei for a long time, already when he was prevented from running in the 2018 presidential election. I believe that Alexei is a really serious politician.
He really is a realistic alternative to Putin.
If he is so brave that he returns to Russia, it is unthinkable not to meet him.
We know he's going to be jailed.
Then we must support him, Kotov told Dagens Nyheter on the spot.
Shortly afterwards, however, Kotov was arrested with two other well-known opposition figures.
Films show how the police evade Kotov and Lyubov Sobol, one of the prominent young politicians in Moscow and Ruslan Shaveddinov, who works for the anti-corruption fund for Navalny.
The text is updated.