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Back home & in custody — Putin critic Navalny returns to Russia amid rising political tensions

Alexey Navalny's anti-corruption exposes and success in galvanising anti-government votes has stoked tensions as Russia heads towards parliamentary elections this autumn.

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Russian police detained opposition leader Alexey Navalny, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, as he arrived in Moscow after being treated in Germany for poisoning, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and Europe.

Navalny, 44, was met by officers at passport control as he landed in Moscow on a plane from Berlin Sunday, according to a live video feed on his YouTube channel. The Federal Penitentiary Service said he had been detained for violating the terms of a suspended sentence, state-run Tass reported.

“This is my home,” he told reporters who’d traveled with him Sunday shortly before he was detained. “I’m not scared of anything.” Navalny boarded the flight knowing that he could face a lengthy prison term if he returned.

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo — who departs with the rest of the Trump administration on Wednesday — condemned Russia’s decision and called for Navalny’s immediate and unconditional release, echoing similar demands from the European Union and Biden’s incoming national security adviser.

“We note with grave concern that his detention is the latest in a series of attempts to silence Navalny and other opposition figures and independent voices who are critical of Russian authorities,” Pompeo said in a statement on Sunday.

Navalny, whose anti-corruption exposes and success in galvanizing anti-government votes have increasingly needled the authorities, had been recovering in Germany from a nerve-agent attack in August that he and Western governments blamed on Putin.

Surrounded by Russian law enforcement upon landing in Moscow, Navalny kissed his wife, Yuliya, goodbye before walking off with police. Authorities said he would be held pending a court decision on his sentence set for Jan. 29. He spent the night in a cell in a police station in Khimki, a Moscow suburb near the airport, but hadn’t been given access to a lawyer, his allies said.

Dozens of his supporters were detained by police at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, where he had appealed to them to meet him. The flight was diverted to another airport shortly before arrival.

The move to imprison the most prominent opponent of the Russian president marks the biggest crackdown by Putin in recent years. Coming days before U.S. President-elect Biden takes office, it could trigger an immediate clash with the new Democratic administration.

Jake Sullivan, incoming President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, blasted the Kremlin and called for Navalny’s release.

Navalny returned home amid rising political tension ahead of Russian parliamentary elections this autumn and support for the Kremlin falters amid the coronavirus downturn. Putin, 68, whose two-decade rule makes him the longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, last year overturned term limits, allowing him to stay in power until 2036. Speculation that he may step down far sooner is building.

“There were only two choices for Navalny — to stay in Germany or come home. If he remained an émigré, in Russia people would quickly lose interest in him,” said Alexei Makarkin, deputy director of the Center for Political Technologies in Moscow. “His calculation is he’ll become a symbol of resistance behind bars and a big risk for Putin.”

European Council President Charles Michel, who speaks for the EU on foreign affairs, called Navalny’s detention unacceptable. It’s “yet another attempt to intimidate the democratic opposition in Russia,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Facebook.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are calling on the EU to “consider imposition of restrictive measures” on Russia if Navalny isn’t freed, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Twitter.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced the comments by Sullivan and other officials as “prepared ahead of time,” calling on them in a Facebook post to “respect international law, don’t infringe on the national legislation of sovereign countries and deal with the problems in your own country.”

Russia issued an arrest warrant for Navalny after accusing him of violating the conditions of a 3 1/2 year suspended fraud sentence by not appearing in person for regular summons. It asked a Moscow court on Jan. 11 to replace it with a prison term. The opposition politician also potentially faces separate charges of embezzlement punishable by as many as 10 years in prison.

While for years Navalny was repeatedly jailed for weeks at a time and faced assaults on the street — at one point nearly losing his eye — the poisoning attack marked the most serious attempt to kill him. Russia denied any involvement and said it found no proof the opposition politician was poisoned, accusing him of fabricating it as part of working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

With Navalny ignoring the threat to arrest him, the Russian authorities’ response looks set to further sour ties with a once-close partner, Germany, and other European states led by France.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country offered treatment to Navalny after his near-fatal poisoning during a campaign trip to Siberia, visited him in the hospital and provided personal security guarantees. The EU sanctioned six Russian officials in October for the use of the banned Novichok chemical weapon in the attack. –Bloomberg


Also read: Alexey Navalny is returning to Russia, leaving Putin in a catch-22 situation


 

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1 COMMENT

  1. It is like a joke. Hardly any difference btw current kremlin bosses and Navalni. Author keeping quiet that Navalni and his friends never fight for peoples interest who are poorer with every passing day. US establishment / West Europe establishment wants to replace Putin with Navalni. Navalni and his friends consider as if corruption in Russia started with Putin. They do not talk of massive corruption during Elstin era. Navalni is a typical Western puppet like Elstin and many others today including current ruling class. After the Bolotanaya movement, Navalni maintained stone silence after he got into agreement with Kremlin managers while his comrades were imprisioned and were languished in jails all over Russia and so overwhelming opposition forces do not recognise Navalni as their leader. Until and unless he stops representing one section of Western interest. Perception about his that he has only on agenda that he has to become president of Russia like Elstin had some 30 years back.

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