The Russian opponent is expected this Sunday at Moscow airport.

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Sergei Savostyanov / TASS / Sipa USA / SIPA

It is the day of return for the Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny.

After several months of convalescence in Germany where he was recovering from an alleged poisoning, Alexeï Navalny must return to Moscow this Sunday, despite the almost immediate threats of arrest raised by the Russian justice.

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 which he received in 2014.

" Thank you friends !

"

Alexeï Navalny, 44, swept aside these maneuvers aimed according to him to "frighten" him and instead called on his supporters to come and meet him at the Moscow airport of Vnoukovo, where his plane should land at 7.20 pm (4:20 pm GMT).

On the eve of his departure, the opponent thanked the German doctors, police and politicians he had met during the five months he spent in the country.

" Thank you friends !

”He wrote on Instagram.

Today Alexei @Navalny is leaving Berlin where he spent 5 months following an attempted novichok poisoning in #Russia last August.

I will be on the #Pobeda Berlin-Moscow flight for the Russian office of France Télévisions @ infofrance2 @franceinfo @lacroixluc pic.twitter.com/20MbViWXle

- Alexandra Dalsbaek (@alexdalsbaek) January 17, 2021

The Russian opposition leader suddenly fell into a coma in August, as he returned from an election tour in Siberia.

First hospitalized in Omsk, a large city in the region, 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.

Investigation refused by Moscow

The opponent accuses the Russian special services (FSB) of having attempted to assassinate him on the direct order of Vladimir Putin.

According to the versions, the Russian authorities have they questioned the Western secret services, or the hygiene of Alexeï Navalny's life.

So far, Moscow has refused to open an investigation to find out what happened to Alexei Navalny, arguing in particular about Germany's refusal to pass its data on to Russia.

On Saturday, however, Berlin announced that it had transmitted to Moscow elements of its judicial investigation, in particular "reports" of interrogations of Alexey Navalny and "samples of blood and tissue, as well as pieces of clothing", saying expect Moscow to start "shedding light on this crime" now.

Fraud investigation

According to the FSIN, Alexeï Navalny did not respect when he was in Germany the conditions of a suspended prison sentence received in 2014, which required him to report at least twice a month to the prison administration.

The opponent has also been targeted since the end of December by a new investigation for fraud, suspected of having spent 356 million rubles (3.9 million euros) in donations for his personal use.

More than 2,000 people have nevertheless announced on Facebook that they intend to come and welcome him, but the courts have warned against participating in any “public event” organized at the Vnoukovo airport, which is unauthorized.

Activists who were to join Moscow from St. Petersburg to welcome the opponent were stopped by the police before their departure, according to media.

Nationalist groups hostile to Mr. Navalny also threatened to greet him with “zelionka”, a green antiseptic difficult to clean with which the opponent had already been sprayed in the past.

The airport told him it would not allow the media to work in the terminal, officially because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Videos posted on social media showed riot police stationed outside.

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