Alexei Navalny detained at airport on return to Russia
Posted: 2021, Jan 18, Mon, 7:22 am
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... -to-russiaThe 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.