Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was arrested after defiantly flying back to Moscow on Sunday, his spokesman said, months after he was left in a coma when he was poisoned with nervous agent Novichok.
Faced with the threat of imprisonment on landing, the prominent Kremlin critic boarded a plane in Berlin, Germany, where he was evacuated for treatment in August from a hospital in Siberia at the urging of his family.
The plane, which was originally headed for Moscow Vnukovo Airport, was diverted to the capital’s Sheremetyevo Airport shortly before landing, confirmed Navalny’s press officer Kira Yarmysh in a tweet, without explaining why the plane was redirected.
Yarmysh posted a video of Navalny being escorted by officers in Sheremetyevo, saying he was being detained without explanation and was not allowed to bring in his lawyer. His whereabouts and current status are unknown, Yarmysh tweeted on Sunday.
The Federal Prison Service of Russia issued a statement to the state media agency TASS confirming that Navalny was being detained, allegedly for “repeated violations of the probation period”. He will remain in custody until he can appear in court, the statement said.
While Navalny, 44, was on the air, Russian broadcaster Dozhd TV showed images of Navalny’s associates, including lawyer and politician Lyubov Sobol, being detained pending the politician’s arrival at Vnukovo airport.
Inside and outside the airport, hundreds defied a warning from the Moscow prosecutor’s office to welcome Navalny when he landed. Dozhd TV showed images of some supporters being arrested and the riot police entering.
Security measures were also enforced at the airport and several prisoner transport trucks could be seen outside.
Hours earlier, wearing a shiny green jacket and carrying a small suitcase, Navalny boarded his flight to Moscow and waved to the crowd of reporters and other passengers, before being applauded by some as he boarded the plane.
“I am very, very happy today,” he said, adding that he felt “a Russian citizen who has every right to return home”.
Asked if he was concerned about returning to Russia, Navalny replied, “Why would I be afraid of Russia? What bad things can happen to me in Russia?”
Navalny announced his decision to return to Moscow on Wednesday, signaling his intention to continue his political struggle against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In an online video message, he said that it had never crossed his mind not to return to Russia.
“That’s because I didn’t leave. I ended up in Germany – in an intensive care box – for a simple reason: they tried to kill me, “he said.
A thorn in the side of the Kremlin for more than a decade, exposing what he says is high-level corruption and mobilizing crowds of young protesters, he fell ill on a flight from Tomsk, a city in Siberia, to Moscow, on August 20.
The plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the city of Omsk, which is also in Siberia. There, he was taken to the hospital for treatment and placed in an induced coma.
Supporters of the anti-corruption activist, who was prevented from challenging Putin for the Russian presidency in 2018, immediately said they believed he had been poisoned.
But Russian doctors said his initial investigation did not indicate that this was the case, and instead suggested that he may have suffered a metabolic problem.
After a medical team arrived from Germany, the politician’s family insisted that he be transferred to Berlin for treatment.
Germany later concluded that the politician was poisoned with Novichok, the Soviet-era military-grade nervous agent, and Navalny’s associates accused President Putin of being behind it.
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However, the Kremlin denied any involvement, insisting that there is no evidence that Navalny was poisoned and refusing to initiate a criminal investigation into the incident. Moscow also insisted that Navalny was free to return home like any Russian citizen.
His supporters fear the politician could be arrested because his poisoning has raised his status as the Russian government’s strongest enemy, both within the country and internationally.
In late December, the Federal Prison Service warned Navalny that he would face jail time if he did not report immediately to his office, in accordance with the terms of a suspended sentence and probation he received for a 2014 conviction, which the politician rejected as politically motivated. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that his conviction was illegal.
He said on Thursday that Navalny was on a wanted list, with an order to arrest him.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
