Kremlin critic Navalny takes off to Russia despite threat

Moscow, Jan. 17: Chief Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny returns to Russia from Germany on Sunday, facing imminent arrest after authorities warned they would detain him.

The 44-year-old opposition leader is flying back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny fell violently ill on a flight over Siberia in August and was flown out to Berlin by medical aircraft in an induced coma.

Western experts concluded he was poisoned with a Soviet-designed nerve toxin Novichok.

The Kremlin denied involvement and Russian investigators said there were no grounds to launch a probe into the attack.

Berlin said Saturday it had responded to requests for legal assistance from Moscow and handed over transcripts of an interview conducted by German police with

Navalny.

On the eve of his departure Navalny thanked the people in Germany, including doctors, police and politicians, whom he met during his five-month stay.

“Thank you, friends!” he wrote in German in a post on Instagram.

Russia’s prison service (FSIN) is now saying Navalny may face jail time on arrival to Moscow for violating the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence he was handed on fraud charges.

FSIN said it would be “obliged” to detain Navalny. The anti-graft campaigner may also face criminal charges under a probe launched by Russian investigators late last year who say he misappropriated over $4 million worth of donations.

Navalny and his allies view these moves as attempts to prevent his return and encouraged supporters to come meet the opposition leader on Sunday evening when he lands in Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. —