Alexei Navalny announced his return to Russia in a video on Instagram.

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Navalny instagram account / AP / SIPA

It is an understatement to say that he is not welcome in his country of origin.

While the Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny is currently on a plane to Russia, several of his allies were arrested this Sunday by the police at the Moscow airport where they had come to welcome him, a announced an employee of the opponent.

The opponent took off in the middle of the afternoon from Berlin airport where he had been treated since his poisoning this summer.

"Lioubov Sobol, Rouslan Chaveddinov, Ilia Pakhomov, lawyer Alexey Molokoyedov, assistant to Navalny Ilia Pakhomov, campaign director Anastasia Kadetova and Konstantin Kotov have been arrested," said on Twitter Ivan Zhdanov, one of the closest collaborators of Alexeï Navalny.

A video released by the opposition media MBKh Media shows the police calmly escorting several people, including Lioubov Sobol, a rising figure of the Russian opposition already arrested a few weeks ago.

Russian authorities on the alert

Among the other people arrested is Rouslan Chaveddinov, a collaborator of Alexey Navalny known to have been forcibly sent in 2019 to do his compulsory military service in the Arctic after a search targeting the opponent's organization.

Konstantin Kotov is also a well-known Russian opposition activist, who was released in December after serving a harsh one-and-a-half-year prison sentence for "repeated violation" of the rules for organizing protests.

The opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta also reported the arrest of her correspondent at the Moscow airport in Vnukovo.

According to MBKh Media, around ten people were arrested before the opponent's return to Russia, who also risks being arrested immediately upon his arrival on the orders of the Russian justice system.

Russian authorities had warned against participation in any unauthorized "public event" held at Vnukovo Airport, where some 200 supporters of Alexei Navalny and riot police units are located.

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