Alexeï Navalny's plane baffled, his allies arrested for his return to Russia
Arrival of Alexey Navalny in Moscow at Sheremetyevo airport on January 17.
REUTERS - STAFF
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3 min
The main opponent of the Kremlin, Alexei Navalny, arrived in Moscow on Sunday, where he faces arrest, after the plane carrying him was rerouted at the last minute and most of his allies were arrested.
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Originally scheduled to land at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, the plane carrying the opponent was diverted to Sheremetyevo's and landed at 8:12 p.m. (5:12 p.m. GMT), nearly three hours after leaving Berlin.
Going aboard alongside his wife Yulia, Alexeï Navalny said he was "
very happy
" to return and assured "that
he had nothing to fear in Russia
".
At Vnoukovo airport, where the opponent was originally expected, the police however arrested most of his allies who came to welcome him, including Lioubov Sobol, a rising figure of the Russian opposition already arrested a few weeks ago. .
Riot police were there in force and were gradually dislodging most of the 200 or so supporters of Mr. Navalny from the airport.
Navalny's allies are accused of “
disobedience
” towards the police, a close collaborator, Ivan Zhdanov, said on Twitter.
According to the specialized NGO OVD-Info, a total of 37 people were arrested in Moscow on Sunday before the arrival of Alexey Navalny.
Since President Vladimir Putin's worst enemy on Wednesday announced his intention to return, the Russian Prison Service (FSIN) has warned him and assured him that they would be "
obliged
" to arrest him for violating the conditions of a suspended prison sentence to which he was sentenced in 2014.
Fell into a coma in august
The Russian opposition leader suddenly fell into a coma in August, as he returned from an election tour in Siberia.
First hospitalized in Omsk, he was finally evacuated to a Berlin hospital under pressure from his relatives.
Three European laboratories have since concluded that the opponent was poisoned by a Novichok-type nerve agent, developed in Soviet times for military purposes, a finding confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) despite the denials from Moscow.
The opponent accuses the Russian special services (FSB) of having attempted to assassinate him on the direct order of Vladimir Putin.
The Russian authorities have they questioned the Western secret services, or the lifestyle of Alexeï Navalny, refusing to open an investigation, arguing in particular of the refusal of Germany to transmit its data to Russia.
Although largely ignored by the national media, not represented in Parliament and ineligible, Alexeï Navalny remains the main voice of the opposition, in part thanks to his YouTube channel with 4.8 million subscribers and his organization, the Struggle Fund Against Corruption (FBK), denouncing the corruption of the elites.
His notoriety in Russia, however, remains limited outside the major cities, with a poll by the independent Levada center in September revealing that only 20% of Russians approved of his actions.
(With Afp)
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Alexei Navalny