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Alexei Navalny detained at airport on return to Russia

Posted: 2021, Jan 18, Mon, 7:22 am
by AHE
The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on his return from treatment abroad after a suspected poisoning attempt on his life by Russia’s FSB spy agency.

Police detained Navalny shortly after his flight from Berlin landed on Sunday evening. It was due to touch down at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, where hundreds of supporters had gathered. The authorities closed the airport at the last minute, and diverted Navalny’s plane to Sheremetyevo, away from waiting media.

The Moscow department of Russia’s federal penitentiary service confirmed that Navalny had been arrested. The official cause was failure to appear at a parole hearing. He could face years behind bars if a suspended sentence he received in 2014 is amended to a prison term.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... -to-russia

Re: Alexei Navalny detained at airport on return to Russia

Posted: 2021, Jan 18, Mon, 7:23 am
by AHE
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for national security adviser called on Russian authorities to free Navalny. “Mr. Navalny should be immediately released, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable,” Jake Sullivan said in a tweet.

The outgoing U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said the U.S. “strongly condemns” he decision to arrest Navalny and called his detention “the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures and independent voices who are critical of Russian authorities.”
https://apnews.com/article/alexei-naval ... 7980e472e1